Malaysia launches Asia Pac Urban Agenda Platform to streamline city development regionally

PETALING JAYA (May 19): Malaysia has launched the Asia Pacific Urban Agenda Platform (AP-UAP) in a move to streamline regional urban cooperation into a structured, action-driven framework across Asia-Pacific countries.

Housing and Local Government Minister and UN-Habitat Assembly president Nga Kor Ming said the AP-UAP is vital in transforming fragmented urban efforts across the Asia-Pacific into a collective, structured and action-driven ecosystem, enabling cities to move faster from vision to implementation, and from dialogue to delivery.

“Born from a strategic partnership between the government of Malaysia and UN-Habitat, this platform is more than an initiative, it is a mission,” he said in a press release today.

The AP-UAP was introduced as a regional mechanism developed through collaboration between Urbanice Malaysia and UN-Habitat, aimed at strengthening cooperation and accelerating the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) across 58 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The launch took place today during the opening ceremony of the Malaysia Pavilion at the 13th World Urban Forum (WUF13), co-organised by UN-Habitat and the Government of Azerbaijan, which is bringing together more than 30,000 participants from 180 countries under the theme “Housing the World: Safe and Resilient Cities and Communities”.

Available in both digital and physical formats, the publication highlights Malaysia’s urban planning evolution, public housing policies, community-driven development approaches, and efforts to build more inclusive, resilient, and people-centred cities.

Also present at the ceremony was United Arab Emirates (UAE) minister of energy and infrastructure Suhail Mohamed Faraj Al Mazrouei.

Nga also said the global housing crisis is affecting nearly 2.8 billion people worldwide, warning that rapid urbanisation, climate stress, and widening inequalities require urgent and coordinated global action.

“Let us commit to Human-Centred Urbanism, and work collectively to bridge the estimated 5.4 trillion-dollar annual financing gap for climate-resilient infrastructure,” he said, emphasising that urbanisation is about human lives and dignity rather than statistics alone.

He added that as Malaysia prepares to hand over the UN-Habitat Presidency to the UAE and take up its seat in the UN-Habitat executive board next year, stakeholders are encouraged to contribute to the WUF13 call-to-action to ensure it becomes a meaningful legacy document.

Reflecting on Malaysia’s progress under the Madani government, he highlighted the delivery of over 1.1 million affordable homes, a 77% homeownership rate, and the planting of more than 115 million trees nationwide as part of its commitments towards SDG 2030.

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