 Good evening. Upon Ricky Burdett's request, I'm here to provide a few closing remarks. I am Shelket Pamuk from the London School of Economics, also born and raised and lived most of my life in the city. Well, what can I say really after these two fascinating and very intensive days? Where can I begin to reflect without I might add taxing further your patience at this very late hour? Let me begin with my hat as an economic historian with some historical perspective again. Obviously, cities are not new. Cities have been with us for literally thousands of years. But as so many people have pointed out in the last two days, there is something very exceptional going on for the last two centuries. And especially the last half century. Economic growth, population growth and urbanization have combined to sharply increase both the total numbers of urban population and also their share in the total world population in the last two centuries and especially in the last half century. I just want to remind you that a number of people again have pointed out that only a century ago, only 10% of the world's population lived in urban areas. Today more than half the world's population live in urban areas. And according to some estimates I've seen by the middle of the 21st century, 3 fourths perhaps 80% of the world's population will be living in urban areas. Combining all of this, even in the last half century we have witnessed possibly a more than 10 fold increase in the urban population of the world. And for the first time in human history in the 21st century we will be living in a world where the majority of the people live in urban areas. And I might add that of all these big trends in the last century, especially in the last half century, most of the urban growth has been in what most people call the developing areas of the world. Most of the urbanization in the developed areas, Europe, North America, Japan, took place in fact earlier. Now let me put my other hat on as someone who has lived in this city most of my life. When I was born the population of Istanbul was only a little over 1 million. It is now about 12 million. So there has been more than 10 fold increase in the population of this city in my lifetime. Now I don't want to remind you of this just to show you my age, but rather I want to point out to the pace of change. And certainly Istanbul is not unique in this respect. Many of the big global cities of the developing world have experienced this phenomenal growth only in the last half century. When I was a school child growing in this city, I thought, admittedly I only thought, but I thought I knew most of the districts if not the neighborhoods in this city. And I suspect that many of you may have already read about this, but that is another matter. Later on in the 1960s and 1970s this city attracted, as you all know, literally millions of new residents, all with their hopes and of course with their disappointments. People were arriving at this city with expectations of, as it has been pointed out, with better, well, better job opportunities, better healthcare, and above all better education. At least if not for themselves, certainly for their children. But as is the case for most of these global cities, Istanbul's trajectory had its ups and downs. I remember very well that in the 1970s this country, as well as this city, was deeply immersed in its political problems, looking inward. And I was wondering whether Istanbul would ever make it or whether Istanbul would miss it. Since the 1980s, in fact, Istanbul turned outward again and Turkey began to reach out and build many of the bridges to the rest of the world. And this city has turned into a global city. And I mentioned these because in many respects this trajectory and a very recent history of this city has many common dimensions with so many of the global cities in the developing world. So I asked myself, well, especially as someone who's looking from the outside, what did I really learn during the last two days? First, there may be differences in the individual histories, but clearly all of these cities share, in addition to a common past, they share a common present and future. As we try to understand the common lives, problems, struggles, I think we also understand, at least for my part, I am much more convinced now than yesterday morning. And I've learned much more that these global cities have a lot to learn from each other's experiences as they struggle with the many similar problems to understand the problems and try to find solutions. And I would like to commend the urban age and the organizers of these series of conferences and those that supported this project for bringing together, well, these thinkers, professionals, activists, politicians, not only bringing them together but I think actively trying to establish an ongoing network, a global network of people as we face the 21st century. Finally, I think we've spent a good bit of time today on this issue. As all these cities, these global cities face similar forces, similar problems, we have been reminded that the solutions will be shaped ultimately by local forces, by local initiatives. And solutions will be built ultimately by local participation. If, in fact, the 21st century is going to be even more a century of the cities, a century of urban areas and all these big trends suggest to us very strongly that will be the case. I think it would not be saying much to say that more than the past ever before, participation, politics and democracy in the urban areas will be increasingly important as they shape or in the shaping of our lives in these urban areas. Thank you very much.