A team within the Economic Development Centre is leading the Metropolitan Development Programme. This is an extremely ambitious research and development program focussed on one of the most diverse and influential regions of the world.  The research is centred on the major metropolitan cities of Asia and the Pacific, exploring the role that metropolitan centres play in the economic and social development of their respective countries as well as the region as a whole. The intention is to break out of the competitiveness between major metropolitan cities so that we can explore the distinctive patterns of development which have produced and shaped the cities of today, thereby building a collaborative evidence-based research program and a forum for economic and social development in the region.

The research programme engages teams of researchers from major metropolitan cities throughout the Asian and Pacific region (one team for each country). Each of these groups has an established ‘track record’ in economic and social development.  They are responsible for conducting their own review of their major city’s performance in terms of economic and social development, and are developing these to present at an Asian-Pacific Metropolitan Development Forum which we have scheduled for Shanghai in November 2008.