The 5th Forum on National Sustainable Communities, themed as “Building Harmonious Cities ”, was held in Zezhou County, Shanxi Province on September 7th-10th, 2007.

The forum was divided into five panels, including development model and mechanism for sustainable cities, sustainability improvement and planning, development model and mechanism for distinctive industries, urban energy conservation & emission reduction and improvement of urban environment and public literacy.

Officials from UN-Habitat, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and LIFE International Foundation for Ecology attended the forum for the first time and updated on the implementation of the UN-Habitat “Sustainable City Program” as well as the related Sino-Swedish cooperation. They also exchanged views with the Chinese delegates on the new roles and opportunities of governments and enterprises in the era of globalization and eco-economy.