On August 8th, 2010, International Academic Consortium for Sustainable Cities (IACSC) International Symposium was held at PACIFICO YOKOHAMA. Under the theme of “Exploring Sustainable Cities: A New Role of Universities”, keynote speeches were made and academic faculty and students from Yokohama City University (YCU) gave presentations.
The International Academic Consortium for Sustainable Cities (IACSC) is a network among universities mainly in Asia, which makes collaborative efforts with cities and international organizations in solving urban issues.
As keynote speeches in the 1st part of the symposium, Mr. Oshima, senior vice president of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), gave a speech on the roles of universities to solve issues in urbanization, and Mr. Hiroaki Suzuki, lead urban specialist of World Bank, talked on method to solve urban issues using Eco2 program.
In the 2nd part, YCU academic faculty gave presentations on the themes of Environment, Urban Planning, and Public Health, which are considered important among urban issues. With academic researchers from APEC countries, such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, proposals were made on how universities can cooperate toward solving the issues, which led to the active discussions afterward.
“INUS”, student organization operated mainly by YCU students, presented their past activities and future plan. Their aim is to establish networks with students abroad as well as in Japan who have interest in international issues and building a sustainable society, and to become able personnel to contribute to the local and international society in various fields. Researchers from aboard listened to their presentations with keen interest and expressed their eagerness to propose student exchange between the universities. It turned to be a meaningful symposium leading toward the further globalization.
