Dr Peter K. S. PUN has been engaged in urban planning for over 38 years. Worked on urban planning in the government of Hong Kong between 1964 and January 1999. Promoted to Director of Planning in 1992, managing Hong Kong's planning and development and coordinating planning for major cross-boundary infrastructure, until retirement from the government in January 1999. Now working as honorary adviser to the Vision Planning Consultants Ltd.

Besides actual planning work, actively participated and promoted other work related to planning. In 1978/79, acted as Chairman of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Town Planning Institute; a founder of the Hong Kong Institute of Planners and its President for several terms; President of the Commonwealth Association of Planners from 1984 to 1988.

Adviser on town and country planning for several cities in Mainland China.

Since 1981, part-time lecturer and honorary professor in departments and centre in the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong. Other than degree theses, written several geography text-books and published more than 70 papers on urban planning and geography. Organized and participated in many local and international professional conferences.

Member of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Basic Law Consultative Committee; member of the HKSAR Election Committee; member of 10th NPC Hong Kong Representatives Election Committee; Vice Chairman of the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute, from 2002; and member of Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Housing Society, from 2002.

Prof. P.S.N.Rao, Ph.D. ( Housing ), is a housing, urban development and real estate specialist. He has worked for nearly fifteen years as Faculty, Department of Housing, School of Planning and Architecture, ( Deemed to be a University ), New Delhi. He has over 100 publications to his credit. He has undertaken several studies on various aspects of housing and urban policy in India. His expertise and advice is sought by various consultancy, research and training organisations. As a human capacity builder, he is regularly invited to various institutes to deliver lectures on housing and allied subjects. He is a Member, National Committee on Housing, Confederation of Indian Industry. Presently, he is Professor of Urban Management, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. He is also Joint Editor, Nagarlok , an urban affairs quarterly and Editor, e-Realty Update, a monthly electronic newsletter on housing and real estate matters in India.

Dick Schuiling was graduated in political science and public administration in 1973 at the Free University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Since 2000 he is Chairman of the Amsterdam Federation of Housing Associations, the umbrella organization for 13 associations who own over 205,000 dwellings (55% of the total housing stock) in Amsterdam.

As a lecturer in (physical) planning he is teaching urban planning, urban revitalization, housing, project management and property development at the University of Amsterdam since 1974. He is also the Education Coordinator of the Planning Courses of that university.

He is a member of the international editorial board of 'Planning Practice & Research', published in Great Britain, and of the international scientific advisory board of 'Aquapolis', published in Italy.

He was Chairman of the Amsterdam Council for Urban Planning (ARS) from 1986-1993. From 1996-2000 he was chairman of a small organization controlling the social objectives of a very large housing association (32.000 dwellings) in the Amsterdam region. From 2001-2002 he was a member of the national Commission for Innovation of Urban Revitalization.

He did a.o. contract research for the Dutch Ministry of Housing into "Grant-aided private sector housing improvement in Great Britain" together with Mike Gibson in 1987, into the "Five pilot-projects for urban revitalization in the Netherlands" in 1989 and into "Inner City renewal 1960-1990, lessons from the redevelopment era" in 1990. He introduced 'enveloping' and 'area caretakers' in the Netherlands. He contributed to the scenarios of two films on urban renewal and participated in various TV-programs, among them interactive live-TV-discussions on Amsterdam urban planning items. He gave lectures in La Napoule, Barcelona, Brighton, Roma, Torino, Bologna, Venezia, Milano, Birmingham, Sevilla, Glasgow, London, Dublin, Seattle, Sharjah and Prague.

He wrote various articles in English and Italian and lectured abroad on urban renewal and large revitalization projects in The Netherlands and the Amsterdam Waterfront projects in particular. In 1994, he wrote also a 'blackbook', called "the fifth wall", on the contamination of the urban 'roofscape'.

Dr. Jeroen van der Veer (1964) is policy advisor at the Amsterdam Federation of Housing Associations, the umbrella organisation for 13 associations who own over 205,000 dwellings (55% of the total housing stock) in Amsterdam. His main responsibilities are in the area of research and information. His work includes housing market research, strategic housing policy, regional housing markets and monitoring of housing and population developments.

In addition, he is a member of the editorial board of the 'Journal of Housing and the Built Environment' published in The Netherlands by Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Van der Veer received his M.S. degree as an Economic Geographer from the University of Amsterdam in 1988. He wrote his master's thesis on Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in China. During his study he was Secretary of the China Amsterdam Foundation (CHAIN). In 1988 he participated in a course on Chinese Economic Law at China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing.

From 1990 to 1997 Jeroen worked as a researcher at the Amsterdam Study Centre for the Metropolitan Environment (AME) of the University of Amsterdam. In 1992 Jeroen did a.o. contract research for the Dutch Ministry of Housing on "skewness" in the housing distribution. At the AME Van der Veer worked in the fields of urban and political geography. In 1997 he finished his Phd-thesis titled 'Contested City-boundaries'. The PhD-research analyzes political decision making with respect to urban extensions, metropolitan government and housing in the Dutch cities of Amsterdam and Eindhoven. He wrote several articles in scientific journals like Urban Studies and Environment and Planning and participated in various international conferences.

Mr SHIH Wing-ching, born in Shanghai and brought up in Hong Kong, was in his early years under the influence of the left trend of thought. After eight years of teaching in a workers' evening school in his youth, SHIH stepped in the business field in 1976, when his ideals for socialism vanished during the Tiananmen Square Incident.

SHIH first worked for an estate development company and two years later in 1978, SHIH established Centaline Property Agency Limited with a friend. Now Centaline has become a market leader of the estate agency industry and the company has an extensive business network throughout China, with branches set up in more than ten major cities.

With enthusiasm for community service and academic activities, SHIH participates in the management of a number of social organizations and he frequently delivers speeches to universities and schools. Being active in the media, SHIH hosts programs on radio, writes articles for newspapers, and is now one of the most popular media personalities giving interviews on market and government policy analysis.