As the world has become more urbanized than ever in history, with more than half of the world’s population now residing in cities, the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG - website: http://www.cities-localgovernments.org/) is the international forum representing local and regional governments, defending the of local governments on the world stage, regardless of the size of the communities they serve. The 2nd UCLG World Congress in Jeju South Korea was held in Jeju, Korea during 28-31 October, 2007, with over 1,800 participants taking part under the theme ‘Changing Cities are driving our world’.

Ms. Nguyen Quynh Chi, Boise MBA '95 was a representative of Vietnam at the 2nd UCLG World Congress. As panel speaker to the panel on the topic of "Cities without slums - strategic responses in fast-growing cities", she presented the experience of Vietnamese cities to realize the potential of cities for economic growth and poverty alleviation, thus preventing fast formation of urban slums. Positive and streamlined responses have been made possible through City Development Strategy (CDS) processes by identifying ways to create well governed, sustainable, productive and socially inclusive cities. Different from the traditional Vietnamese 5-year socio-economic development plan, CDS is more of a process than a steering document. The involvement of local stakeholders and the community in articulating the city vision and development path in the process of formulating the CDS facilitates and ensures local ownership, capacity and innovation. More information on CDS can be found on the website: http://www.cities-localgovernments.org.

For almost a decade (1997-2007), Ms Chi was senior national consultant to the Swiss Development and Cooperation agency (SDC) in their multi-year project helping the municipality of Nam Dinh, a mid-size town in the Northern Delta of Vietnam, to pioneer CDS in their fast-paced transition from a small backwater town into the future urban center of the South Red River Delta region. After graduation from Boise State in the first ever Vietnamese MBA class (1993-1995), Ms Chi was strategy and marketing lecturer at the Business School, National Economics University (www.bsneu.edu.vn) and is now a senior consultant at the Vietnamese consulting firm Organizational Capacity Development Co. (www.ocd.com.vn). She has undertaken consulting assignments with major projects in Vietnam funded by the World Bank, UNDP, Asia Development Bank as well as assignments with private sector clients.