| The World City Forum is an annual event that brings together the political leaders and economic actors of the world's cities.
The 2005 World City Forum will focus, in a practical manner, on the problems and challenges facing the worlds cities in two key areas
> achieving better water management:
while the objective of cities is to guarantee fair and universal access to water, the challenges posed by increasing demand and the need to maintain water quality generate new forms of governance. Partnerships between the public and private sector make it possible to combine fair distribution criteria with profitability constraints. How are the roles of public and private players defined to ensure good water management? How can water management be made both economically efficient and socially acceptable? What kinds of political or legal instruments could achieve these objectives? What role can the user and the citizen play?
> anticipating industrial change:
globalisation has generated increased worldwide competition amongst cities to attract and keep businesses. What must a city do to boost local development and create the conditions for a continued presence of the companies located there? How can local authorities and companies cooperate to anticipate crises and face up to the problems of economic change? What mechanisms do they use to manage structural transformation or relocation and create new opportunities?
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