President Lee Jae-kwang of Korea Housing Urban Guarantee Corp.(HUG) (Photos: HUG)

The 6th International Forum on Housing and Urban Financing took place at the Conrad Seoul Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, on Dec. 13. The theme was, “Innovation and Change of Housing and Urban Financing, and International Cooperation.”

International experts discussed topics such as housing welfare & urban renewal, urban housing financing for supporting new housing supply systems and alternative options of urban housing financing. The forum was organized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), the Korea Housing & Urban Guarantee Corp. and Housing Financing Foundation.

Issues such as the possible application of social financing to the urban housing sector, a much-talked-about topic in Korea of late, and a way of laying cooperative infrastructure between Asian states and international institutions, became themes of the forum. Approximately 300 people, including foreign diplomats, government officials, researchers and students took part.

Experts with housing policy and urban financing sectors from countries such as Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Canada, Sweden, and Singapore presented each country’s policy experiences and related cases. Each session covered related topics and discussions. In particular, the forum covered issues ranging from those in advanced countries to those in Asian countries, a departure from previous forums with a focus, which tended to focus on advanced countries.

Materials such as each country’s economic situation, chronology of housing financing, and related institutional systems were made public via the forum’s official website (www.ifhf.or.kr). In particular, information on Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Sweden, widely unknown to Korea, was evaluated to have enough value for basic study in itself.

Korean and international experts pose hand-in-hand while attending the 6th International Forum on Housing and Urban Financing took place at the Conrad Seoul Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, on Dec. 13.

The International Forum on Housing and Urban Financing, which made its debut in 2013, has contributed to exploring ways of overhauling conventional policies and recommending new policies. The forum has established itself as one of the nation’s largest international events on housing and urban financing.

A HUF official said the forum was not a one-shot, transient event, but one designed to pursue the goal of collective intelligence by sharing Korean and foreign housing and urban policy experiences and evolving them through discussions. Ideas and discussions taken up during the forums not only served as nutrient elements to establish the Korean government’s housing and urban policies, but also as an insight into the development of Korean and foreign housing and urban financing and the improving of housing welfare, the official added.

Here are some of the cases on each country’s housing market and housing financing environment and related laws, which were handled during the latest forum.

In the first session on the topic “In an Era of Asia, Establishment of International Cooperation Infrastructure for Housing and Urban Financing Technology,” Wahyu Uomo, deputy minister for Infrastructure Acceleration and Regional Development, Coordinating Ministry of Economic Affairs, Indonesia, spoke on the Southeast Asian country’s housing development situation.

Given issues such as Asian countries’ population size, potential growth, housing demand rise, and necessity for development of new cities, he predicted that demand such as diverse infrastructure, housing and construction of new cities will rise.