The Asian Development Bank (ADB) called on the world to help Asian cities cope with unprecedented growth. Over the next decade, a spokesman explained, the regions urban areas would be growing by more than 100,000 people a day. “Half of Asia's population will be living in cities by 2020, as some 1.1 billion people move to urban environments over the next 20 years,” added ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda.

'For most major cities in Asia, growth rates are too rapid for their own infrastructure to keep up with and the benefits of new investments and infrastructure have not been distributed equally,' Kuroda told a conference on sustainable cities in Singapore. According to Kuroda there was a $30 billion shortfall every year in the maintenance of urban infrastructure in the region, leading to greater deterioration of the existing infrastructure — already more than half a billion Asians currently lived in slums and air pollution was affecting the health of millions.

“By 2015, more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions will come from cities in Asia,” the ADB president added. Asia's cities needed assistance in coping with the physical impact of past and current urban growth. 'They need increased investments in sustainable infrastructure, which will only come through more appropriate and relevant financing options.'