SUPS 5 Final Communique

His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan Bin Mohammed Al-Quassimi inaugurated the Fifth Sharjah Urban Planning Symposium. He graced the speakers by his invaluable remarks concerning globalisation, heritage preservation and youth democratic education. Speaking in the context of Sharjah's urban development, His Highness impressed upon the participations that globalisation needs to be a mutual process of acceptance and dialogue and that it should not counter the local values that are most precious for the community. He also emphasised the need for preparing the youth for leadership and democratic development in all aspects of social life including urban management.

Participants agreed that SUPS 5 has been a most successful event. In three days of paper presentation and debate, participants reflected on a variety of urban planning problems and approaches, and offered insights for the solution of the critical issues facing urban areas. It was generally agreed that this Symposium is making a major impact on theories and practices of urban planning in the Middle East and beyond. It was further agreed that the Symposium should continue to be held in future years so that more contributions to the field of urban planning could be made.

The participants were unanimous in their evaluation of the achievements of the UAE under the leadership of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, the President of UAE. Further, the participants acknowledged and were positively impressed by the achievements of the Emirate of Sharjah under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan Bin Mohammed Al-Qassimi, Member of the Supreme Council, Ruler of Sharjah.

These achievements were favourably compared with the experience of Singapore, a most successful city-state. The research project comparing the two cases directly emerged from SUPS 4 and it is hoped that in future such projects will continue to emerge from the deliberations of this Symposium programme.

The participants recognize that globalisation is a reality and gives rise to consequences that are both positive and negative and are uneven across nations and regions. It was further acknowledged that the management of globalisation should focus on creating a balance between global modernizing forces and local social values and traditions. As global forces create imbalances across spatial scales, participants urge that the world community should take an active role in addressing this issue. More specifically, participants urged that institutional and policy requirements for a solution to global uneven urbanization should be provided.

Globalisation has created a situation that requires an innovative thinking and approach in urban planning processes. Urban globalisation has brought with it, on the one hand economic prosperity, and on the other, inequality in the distribution of global wealth, loss of social and cultural values, and adverse impact on urban heritage. Modernity and tradition are not themselves contradictory or mutually exclusive; rather planning should be seeking to create a balance between them to achieve the benefits from their synthesis.

Sustainability is another theme that emerged in the debate during the Symposium. Participants highlighted the growing awareness of urban sustainability and the impact of unsustainable approaches to urban development on environment, air, water and other natural resources. This implies the need for greater integration between urban strategies and the goals of sustainable urban development.

The Symposium underscored the growing significance of the non-physical approaches to urban planning, focusing on the provision of social, educational, cultural and economic programmes as well as institutional and legal frameworks. This would require developing innovative perspectives within academic programmes and among practitioners.

The globalisation has increasingly localized its impacts making regional and community development key areas of planning emphasis. The regional scale is particularly significant given its intermediate functional responsibilities. In this respect a regional approach could act as a critical medium of co-ordination and co-operation among nations and localities. I the case of the UAE, the regional approach could be particularly helpful in the inter-emirates co-ordination of planning and urban management.