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A Senior Advisor to the President, Mr P.V. Obeng, has tasked professionals and agencies involved in the development of urban areas to collaborate to ensure the effective harmonisation of their activities. Addressing the National Urban Forum in Accra Tuesday, Mr Obeng, who is also the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), said, for instance, that professionals such as engineers and architects could contribute positively to urban development if they did their work well. The event was on the theme: �The New National Urban Policy: Its Implications and Challenges for Ghana�s Urban Development�. President John Dramani Mahama on March 28 launched the National Urban Policy Framework and Action Plan. The National Urban Policy is to comprehensively intervene in the urban sector, and promote the sustainable development of the country�s cities and towns, including taking care of the needs of the disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. The policy would also allow for environmental concerns to be considered when decisions are being made on urban development, in accordance with Ghana's habitat agenda and to arrest the rising inequalities in socio-economic and spatial terms in the country. Mr Obeng said the development of an urban policy should not be construed to mean that the work on urban development had already been done. With the phenomenon of growing population, Mr Obeng said, the issue of sanitation, demand for electricity and traffic congestion had come to the fore. Again, he said, some people who migrate to the cities and towns from rural areas had found themselves sleeping on varandas because of the cost of securing accommodation. Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, noted that urbanisation today was changing the world and the way of life in significant ways. He said it was the policy of the government to use urbanisation as a catalyst for economic growth, social improvement, cultural enhancement and environmental sustainability. In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhaji Amin Amidu Sulemana, said due to population growth existing road network or infrastructure had become inadequate, making it difficult to meet the transportation needs of the public. Meanwhile, he said, the cost of construction of such infrastructure was increasing, and cited the prices of cement and bitumen to support his position.