United Nations, Dec 7 (IANS): A UN General Assembly committee adopted a resolution on human settlement Friday, designating Oct 31 as the World Cities Day.

The General Assembly "decides to designate Oct 31 of every year, beginning in 2014, as World Cities Day," Xinhua cited from the resolution adopted by the UNGA Economic and Financial Committee.

The General Assembly invites member states, the UN system, in particular UN-Habitat, relevant international organisations, civil society and all other relevant stakeholders to observe and raise awareness of the World Cities Day, the resolution added.

On Oct 31, 2010, a declaration issued on the closing day of the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai proposed that Oct 31 be designated as World Better Cities Day, in a bid to recall, renew and advance ideas and practices of the Shanghai Expo for future development.

In the past three years, with joint efforts of the Chinese government and other parties, the International Exhibitions Bureau General Assembly, the UN-HABITAT Governing Council, and the United Nations Economic and Social Council have successively proposed designating World Cities Day.

The designation is expected to greatly promote the international community's interest in global urbanisation, push forward cooperation among countries in meeting opportunities and challenges in urbanisation and contribute to urban sustainable development around the world, observers say.

The move, in line with China's goal of promoting new-type urbanisation construction and ecological civilisation construction, is also seen as an important contribution by China in promoting urban sustainable development around the world.