Department of Municipal Affiars delegation meets with US-Arab Mayors in Chicago for historic conference

The three day Forum, co-hosted by Mayor Daley and Chicago's Sister City partners, Mayor Omar Maani of Amman, Jordan, and Mayor Mohamed Sajid of Casablanca, Morocco, was the first-ever U.S.-Arab Cities Forum aimed at sharing information and implementing strategies to build local economies that are competitive in the global society.

Other members of the delegation included Rashid Alnuaimi, Executive Director, Al Ain Municipality and Dr. Abdullah, DMA Executive Director for Property Management and Tariq Al Jabri, DMA Director of Information Technology.

Attending along with the DMA's representation of the Abu Dhabi municipalities were more than 50 municipal leaders from the United States, Canada and the Arab world including leaders from Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar and Yemen.

'As mayors and leaders of municipal government, we share the same challenges. And as technology continues to advance, we all are faced with the challenge and opportunity of living and working in a global economy,' said Mayor Daley. 'That's why a meeting such as this one is important. The information we exchange here and the relationships we build will pay great benefits to all our cities and our residents in the time to come,' Daley said.

In addition, HE Ahmed Shareef pointed out the importance of this forum by saying, 'though we may reside many miles apart and live within different cultures, as municipal leaders we share common challenges and similar experiences; leading to a common solution set among all cities and our gathering during this forum provides us the opportunity to learn and share best practices to better serve our citizens.'

On Tuesday, nestled between the two days of the US-Arab Cities Forum, was the 'Richard J. Daley Urban Forum of the University of Illinois at Chicago' which is an annual national symposium that provides opportunities for mayors from around the world, business leaders, key policy-makers, leading scholars, students and commentators to discuss important issues in American urban history and urban studies.

The event was composed of four moderated topic specific panel discussions throughout the day, with HE Ahmed as one of four a panelist during the panel discussion titled 'The City as Catalyst: The Creative Potential in Urbanization' As a panel member, in addition to fielding questions from the floor, Ahmed presented a well received ten minute presentation addressing the challenges facing the municipalities as the Emirate of Abu Dhabi continues to make the management of municipal services more efficient through empowerment of the private sector to prepare for the needs of the population in the future.

A key element of the presentation was DMA's acknowledgment of the new vision of the UAE leadership as Abu Dhabi took a big step forward as they undertook an active role by hosting the Future Energy Forum this year and investing in the search for future alternative energy sources to better serve the community and protect the environment.

The Forum audience was highly impressed, as noted by numerous follow-up questions, showcasing several Abu Dhabi initiatives to include Abu Dhabi's $5Billon investments into Future energy initiatives, starting with Masdar City and it's zero carbon, clear energy objective of harnessing sustained energy as derived by carefree solar and wind sources.