Poland’s Katowice picked to host 2022 World Urban Forum: official
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
22.05.2019 01:00
The southern Polish city of Katowice has been selected to host the 11th World Urban Forum, a major global conference on urban development in 2022, a government minister has said.
Katowice's landmark Spodek arenaImage: Natalia Padoł [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
While making the announcement on Tuesday, Investment and Development Minister Jerzy Kwieciński said that Katowice had been picked to host the event over rivals including Russia’s St. Petersburg, Germany’s Dortmund and Mexico City.
“We’ve managed to showcase Poland as a transition success story ... and Katowice as a symbol of these changes," Kwieciński said.
Katowice's cutting-edge International Congress Centre. Photo: MacQtosh [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
When the Polish government last year announced Katowice’s bid for the United Nations conference, Kwieciński said the Polish city combined an industrial tradition with post-industrial architecture and strong aspirations to be a dynamic centre of culture and business.
The World Urban Forum is a major UN conference on cities that is held every two years.
Before Katowice gets to host the 2022 event, the 10th World Urban Forum will take place in 2020 in Abu Dhabi.
Katowice in December hosted the United Nations' COP24 climate change conference, which drew around 21,500 participants from almost 200 countries, according to reports.
(gs/pk)
Source: PAP