UN-HABITAT this week signed a new safer cities agreement with the Union Government of Myanmar designed to provide disaster resilient and safer settlements in the southeast Asian nation.
The Government was represented by Director General, U Aung Win of the Department of Human Settlements and Housing Development (DHSHD), Ministry of Construction. He signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Myanmar Programme for Safer Settlements and Urban Issues with Mr. Toshiyasu Noda, Director of the UN-HABITAT Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
The signing ceremony on Monday at the Ministry, was witnessed by U Khin Maung Myint, the Union Minister for Construction.
The minister said he hoped this cooperation with UN-HABITAT would will assist the Government's endeavors of building a new modern and developed nation.
In his remarks, Director-General U Aung Win said he hoped that the five major components of this partnership would be implemented successfully, both in scope and time. These components are: Capacity Building for Human Settlements Planning and development, Safer Human Settlements planning, National Building Codes and regulations development, Low-cost Housing Solutions via Habitech Technology Transfer, and the Rural Low-cost Housing Programme.
Mr. Srinivasa Popuri, the UN-HABITAT Myanmar Country Manager said the agency is cooperating with the relevant Ministries in providing basic infrastructure and access improvements in water and sanitation to urban and rural settlements, technical assistance on disaster risk reduction at township, state/divisions and national level, as well as in the areas of the urban environment and climate change.
Mr. Noda reiterated UN-HABITAT's dedication to promoting socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and said the new agreement would open broad vistas of cooperation between the Myanmar Government and UN-HABITAT to the benefit of the people of Myanmar. |
