The other cities taking part included New Delhi, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Singapore and Bangkok.

The participants at the event exchanged their experiences in managing a major city, especially in urban planning, infrastructure building and ways of addressing problems that have arisen from rapid urbanisation.

The conference also discussed how to maintain a sustainable tourism industry and prevent the A/H1N1 influenza in big cities as well as carrying out joint projects on measures to cope with the global financial crisis, environmental protection and industrial development.

At present, many Asian cities are facing problems such as rapid urbanisation, increasing populations, the spread of diseases, high crime rates and a drop in living standards.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), urban areas around the world grow in population by an additional 67 million people each year and the number of urban citizens is estimated to rise to around 5 billion by 2030, 60% of the world’s population.

On the sidelines of the conference, an exhibition featuring the special characteristics of each Asian city taking part in the conference was held together with a selection of attractive tourism programmes.