The Asian Urban Information Center of Kobe (AUICK) was formed in 1989 in a formal agreement between the City of Kobe and UNFPA.
A previous (1985) comparative study of population and development in Kobe and Singapore, and a 1987 United Nations Conference on Medium Sized Cities led to the creation of AUICK. From these antecedents, AUICK was designed to focus on medium sized cities, to collect information from urban administrators themselves, to disseminate information on urban conditions and urban planning, and to help develop a network of urban administrators in Asia who can assist one another in addressing urban problems.