The 2008 City Development Conference will focus on building a city of the future through strategic planning with an emphasis on effective utilization of resources to build qualitative and quantitative achievements, forming a fertile environment for sustained growth in the era of globalization, leveraging on sustainable community development initiatives, effective transportation system etc to bring the city into the eyes of the world.

The world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history. While mega-cities have captured much public attention, most of the new growth will occur in smaller towns and cities. For the first time in history, more than half of the world's population will be living in towns and cities by 2008. City development is an indispensable complement to grow macroeconomic and opportunities for social mobilization. Every country needs competitive, dynamic regions if it is to achieve its economic and social objectives at the global level. Global information and knowledge sharing have become vital for the solution of urban problems, such as privatizing urban infrastructure, accessing the capital market, formulation of city development strategy and scaling up slum up-grading projects, etc. Good strategy and projects in some cities will be shared at the global level and based on the global knowledge management and standard setting, global networks will assist in providing information, knowledge and capacity building at the city level.