In addition to the many exciting official events at the ninth session of the World Urban Forum (WUF9), FIABCI leaders made excellent use of their time there to network and pursue the business of FIABCI in the region.

This included official meetings with government representatives from India, Malta and Malaysia regarding implementation of the City Prosperity Initiative – Prosperity Index (CPI-PI). For India, meetings were held with the Minister of Housing for India Mr. Hardeep Singh Puri, Additional Secretary of Housing Mr. Rajiv Ranjan Mishra and Chairman of Hudco Mr. Ravi Kant.

In Malta, FIABCI leaders met with the Minister of Housing Mr. Michael Faruugia. They also discussed the formation of a FIABCI-Malta Chapter.

The most significant progress regarding CPI-PI was achieved through the office of Dato' Sri Najib Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, to implement CPI-PI in Cyberjaya, which has agreed to express interest to be one of the first cities to participate in CPI-Perception Index programme, which is based on UN-Habitat and FIABCI cooperation.

Cyberjaya is a multimedia super corridor town outside Kuala Lumpur that includes a leading-edge multimedia center to attract world-class multimedia/IT companies, sophisticated and state-of-the-art integrated infrastructure and efficient transportation systems with an emphasis on public transport.

During WUF9, at a FIABCI parallel event on February10 at Mandarin Oriental Hotel, UN-Habitat, Cyberjaya and FIABCI representatives countersigned the UN-Habitat communication that allowed to proceed with the negotiations for Cyberjaya CPI-Perception Index assessment, after its expression of interest.

Also during WUF9, President Farook and past World Presidents Kirkor Ajderhanyan and Enrico
Campagnoli met with Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director of UN-Habitat and invited her to be the FIABCI keynote speaker at MIPIM.

FIABCI will showcase its work in housing affordability and sustainability during the 2018 edition of MIPIM in Cannes. 

While in Malaysia, President Farook attended FIABCI-Malaysia’s February “Morning Talk” program, featuring well-known economist Prof. Dr. Yeah Lim Leng. He made a short presentation of FIABCI’s vision.

In route to Kuala Lumpur, President Farook made a stop in Saigon, Vietnam with the goal of advancing the formation of a Chapter in Vietnam. With the much-appreciated assistance of MaiLan Trinh (FIABCI-USA), meetings were arranged with key contacts.

A very positive meeting was held with Nguyen Tran Nam, President of Vietnam Real Estate Association, and with former Deputy Minister of Construction and VP Phan Huu Thang. President Farook also met with Paul Mason, President of Keller Williams Vietnam.

Numerous more, informal, connections were made throughout the event – many of which FIABCI expects to result in progress against FIABCI’s program and/or growth objectives over the next year. o