TEHRAN – Iran will hold the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Housing and Human Settlements (APMCHHS) in 2008, said a Ministry of Housing and Urban Development official here on Sunday.

Talking to MNA, Manuchehr Khajeh-Daluii added that the Indian government hosted the first edition in Dec. 2006.
He said that the conference topic was a vision for sustainable urbanization in the Asia-Pacific zone by 2020 which was aimed at galvanizing government action and political commitment at the regional level to improve the lives of 581 million slum dwellers.
In the conference, Iran’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Development was enrolled in the board of directors, Khajeh-Daluii said.
At the end of a two-day visit to the Iranian capital, Daniel Biau, director of United Nations Human Settlements Program’s (UN-HABITAT) Technical Cooperation Division, announced that a Disaster Mitigation Office of UN-HABITAT will start its activities in Tehran at the beginning of 2008.
The office will be entirely funded by the government of Iran and will focus on disaster mitigation, including earthquake resistant technologies.
The official expressed hope that the new office will be inauguarted on the occasion of the meeting in 2008.
The UN–HABITAT is the United Nations agency for human settlements.
It was established in 1978 and has its headquarters at the UN office in Nairobi, Kenya and is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all