The participants at the 5th International Forum on Housing and Urban Finance including Minister Kim Hyun-mee of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry pose for a photo session at Conrad Hilton Hotel in Seoul on Dec. 14, 2017.(Photos:MLIT)

Minister Kim Hyun-mee delivers a speech at the 5th International Forum on Housing and Urban Finance held on Dec. 14 at Conrad Hilton Hotel in Seoul.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLlT) hosted the 5th International Forum on Housing and Urban Finance organized by the Korea Housing and Urban Guarantee Corp. (HUG) on Dec. 14 at Conrad Hilton Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul.

The forum took up such issues as housing rental and urban renewal reflecting government policies. The event was divided into two main sessions; the role of urban housing in the supply of public rental housing and the role of the urban housing finance to promote city resurrection. Participants included a number of foreign scholars invited to attend the Seoul event.

The first speaker at the forum, Vice Chairman Hala Hiltunen of ARA in Finland, spoke on a support system for housing funds to build social welfare units. He was followed by Yost Van den Hoible, senior advisor on strategy of WSW of the Netherlands, who explained the role of finance to support social housing construction and supply, noting a number of successful cases in his speech. Discussed at the forum were such issues as the use of government finance and the participation of the major actors in the economy in social housing welfare in promoting the public housing supply.

The participants in the debate included professors on urban housing finance, research staff, policy experts and the general public. HUG officials said the forum demonstrated various samples for the development of urban housing finance both at home and abroad and improvement for welfare housing supply.