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A Super City
is an urban area that has three characteristics:
A sustainable capability for meeting the physical and social needs of its residents (food, shelter, safety, health, transportation and education). A healthy and dynamic economic environment that creates, attracts and nurtures economic investments that produce adequate jobs and public revenues. By this definition, not all large cities are super cities, but all large cities should strive to achieve that status. The purpose of the 1999 Global Super Projects Conference is to help both the public sector (city officials and planners) and the private sector (investors, financiers and service providers) understand the challenges facing large cities in the 21st century and the opportunities associated with achieving "super city" status.
Large cities (ones with a population of more than one million people) continue to grow rapidly throughout the world. The United Nations estimates that over 500 urban areas will have a population of more than a million by the year 2015, compared to 328 such cities in 1996. Over the same period the number of cities with a population of more than five million is projected to increase from 16 to 26. Large cities as a group will need enormous increases in urban infrastructure and services to meet the demands generated by the rapid growth and rising expectations of residents. The mere scale of the new infrastructure requirements creates imposing planning, financing and development challenges.
Great challenges beget great opportunities. The profound changes underway in the global economy give cities the opportunity to reinvent themselves and change their roles within the global urban hierarchy. Such reinvention requires a city to create a vision of itself as a super city in the new global economy and then to work creatively and aggressively to achieve that vision. To lead this reinvention, leaders in both the public and private sectors must understand the why and how of becoming a super city. That is the purpose of the Super Cities Conference.
The three-day conference is packed with meaty and practical programs, including presentations by global experts, case studies, panel discussions, lively discussions and networking opportunities. The major topics to be examined include:
For information or assistance, contact:
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The challenges are greater than just scale, however. The world is in the midst of social, economic and technological changes that are erasing political boundaries and economic barriers. Every large city in the world is now in intense competition with all other cities for jobs and economic investments. Therefore, cities must not only build more infrastructure, they must create a new economic environment that meets the needs of 21st century business in a highly dynamic global economy.
The role of large cities in the 21st century global economy
