World Bank: Baku has made remarkable progress in urban development

Baku has gone through a remarkably beautiful development path in terms of urban planning, stated Liam Brown, External Affairs Officer of the World Bank Group, in his statement to Report.

According to him, the organization of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) is of a very high level: "As the World Bank Group, we are proud to be here and we are very happy to represent the work we do. It is wonderful to meet various stakeholders, partners, and government representatives from around the world who have gathered at the forum held in Baku. Personally, I am fascinated by Baku. It is a very beautiful city that has gone through a very impressive development path in terms of urban planning over the past few years. It was a great pleasure for me to get to know the representatives from Azerbaijan and the local people. The hospitality of the Azerbaijani people I encountered at the forum left a very pleasant impression on me."

Brown noted that the World Bank Group has been a regular participant in these forums for many years: "The World Bank Group has been a participant in many World Urban Forums for many years. We are proud to be a partner of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) within various initiatives. We participate in this forum to promote the work we do, to support the creation of more livable cities, and to demonstrate how new jobs are being created for the world's growing population. We are also hosting several events here focused on urbanization in Africa and the mobilization of local financial resources. We hope that participants will gain more detailed information about the activities of the World Bank Group from here. I believe that the Forum is a very important global platform where decision-makers, stakeholders, civil society organizations, and the public come together to work on addressing these global challenges. I hope that the various discussions and initiatives at this forum held in Baku will also yield positive results."

He touched upon global demographic challenges, reminding that the urban population is growing very rapidly: "The global population, especially in cities, is growing very rapidly. In the coming decades, millions of young people will enter the labor market, but not enough jobs are being created to accommodate them. That is why at this year's World Urban Forum, we are paying special attention to discussing how cities can be better planned and how urban development can be effectively utilized to create more jobs for the youth of the next generation."