A powerful comeback after three years. In the afternoon of November 4, it was learned from the press conference of the Information Office of Guangzhou Municipal People's Government that the 2021 Global Mayors' Forum, the 13^th World Congress of the World Association of Metropolis and the 5^th Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation ("2021 Global Mayors' Forum Serial Events") will officially kick off next Monday. From November 8 to 13, the serial events will be held in Guangzhou Yuexiu International Congress Center in an online + offline hybrid format.

Under the theme " Moving Forward Together, Modernizing Global Urban Governance", nearly 600 Chinese and international guests from 113 cities around the world will share their wisdom on innovative urban governance and explore the shared future of cities across the world in the 2021 Global Mayors’ Forum serial events. The 5^th Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (the “Guangzhou Award”) will be given to 5 cities among the 15 shortlisted cities from around the world.

The press conference was also held in a hybrid manner. Octavi de la Varga, Secretary-General of Metropolis and Nicholas You, Advisor to the Guangzhou Award and Executive Director of the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, made the briefing online; Deng Changxiong, Deputy Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Office of Guangzhou Government, delivered the presentation offline; and Emilia Saiz, Secretary-General of the World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments, spoke through video.

Building Platform for Cities of the World to Communicate and Exchange

Gathering Nearly 600 Chinese and International Participants from 113 Cities  

Reporter learned that the 2021 Global Mayors’ Forum serial events are co-organized by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, Guangzhou Municipal People's Government, the World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments (the "UCLG") and the World Metropolis Association. Originally scheduled for last year, the events were postponed to this year due to the pandemic.

Jointly initiated by the CPAFFC and Guangzhou, the Global Mayors' Forum builds on the basis of the Guangzhou Award, with an aim to establish a proactive, city-based and world-oriented multilateral exchange and cooperation platform for local governments. The Forum was successfully held for the first time in Guangzhou in December 2018.

"This series of events has four features: Cities of the world gathering in Guangzhou virtually, focusing on innovation of global urban governance, sharing the achievements of urban governance innovation, and telling the China story and Guangzhou story." Deng Changxiong, Deputy Director-General of Guangzhou Foreign Affairs Office introduced at the press conference.

According to statistics, as of November 3, 584 guests from 113 cities in 74 countries and 9 international organizations, and consuls-general or representatives from 27 consulates in Guangzhou will attend the conference online or offline to discuss topics such as public health, science and technology and new infrastructure, poverty reduction, climate change, improving urban resilience and carrying out urban renewal. Key guests confirmed to attend include Qu Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Li Yong, Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization(UNIDO); Lin Songtian, President of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and experts and scholars such as academicians Zhong Nanshan and Anthony Yeh, as well as Mayors of global cities.

The 2021 Global Mayors’ Forum 2021 serial events have 24 conferences and activities, including 13 online-based activities, 10 hybrid ones and one exhibition. The first three days are mainly online and the last three days are a combination.

November 8 will see the opening session of the 13^th World Congress of Metropolis with the theme “Metropolises and cities in transformation: rethinking our future together” and its annual board of directors meeting. As the presidential city, Guangzhou will address the opening session and preside the annual board meeting. On the evening of November 11, the plenary session of the Global Mayors' Forum will be held and attended by the leaders of relevant UN agencies, mayors of Chinese and overseas cities, experts and scholars online or offline. On the evening of November 12, the 5^th Guangzhou Award ceremony will be held, and 6 sub-forums will be held on that day, inviting representatives of Chinese and foreign cities, experts and scholars to have in-depth discussions on biodiversity and urban climate, science and technology and new infrastructure, healthy cities and other areas. A special sub-forum on "Responsibility of Cities in the Fight against Poverty" will share China's experience in poverty alleviation. Two thematic side events will be held during the event: the 2021 annual meeting of the Alliance of Guangzhou International Sister-City Universities and the 2021 exchange meeting of the Guangzhou- Auckland- Los Angeles Tripartite Economic Alliance. The exhibition on urban innovation will also be held both online and offline.

The forum organizers will strictly implement the requirements of pandemic containment, and establish a joint prevention and control mechanism of "event (main) organizers + venue operators + service providers + conference guests" to ensure that all Covid-19 control measures are in place.

Collecting More than 1,300 Innovation Cases in 10 Years

Guangzhou Award Provides Valuable Experience for Global Urban Governance

To advance global urban governance and innovative development, Guangzhou, the UCLG and Metropolis created the Guangzhou Award in 2012, which is held every two years and has been successfully held for four times. Each cycle of the Guangzhou Award has attracted more than 150 cities from more than 50 countries to participate, and has so far collected more than 1,300 cases of urban governance innovation from all over the world, preliminarily establishing a four-pronged operation pattern of "forum + award + think tank + project" and providing significant reference for cities around the world to enhance their urban governance capacity.

Guangzhou Award has gone through a ten-year journey. Against the background of the global pandemic, this cycle of the Award still received 273 submissions from 175 cities of 60 countries and regions, the numbers of participating cities and projects at par with those of previous years.

The judges from all over the world have selected 15 finalists for this year's Guangzhou Award, including Unley, Australia; Vienna, Austria; São José dos Pinhais, Brazil; Chongqing, China; Capital Resion, Denmark; Quito, Ecuador; Orissa, India; Bohampur, India; Bandung, Indonesia; Union of Dannieh Municipalities, Lebanon; Tananarive, Madagascar; Breda, Netherlands; Saint Louis, Senegal; Cape Town, South Africa; and Los Angeles, the U.S.

Nicholas You, advisor to the Guangzhou Award and executive director of Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, said at the press conference that it was highly encouraging to receive so many entries despite the impact of the on-going pandemic; many cities and regions have applied in advance in order to receive feedbacks and benefit from them. Many of the cases address the social, economic and environmental impacts of the Covid-19 and reflected innovative approaches. Most of them highlight the importance of social inclusion as a key issue and challenge in improving urban resilience and sustainability.

"The Guangzhou Award is a platform for learning and exchange. Over the past four editions we have realized that the important experiences provided by the Award can benefit other cities and regions, and these experiences are not limited to the winning cases." Nicholas You noted that the technical committee and jury of this edition have adopted an online instead of offline format. 15 shortlisted cases reflect different environments and issues around the world, and each shortlisted case has its own unique merits worthy of learning.

According to the organizer, from November 8 to 10, four Guangzhou Award finalist cities' defense sessions will be held, where each city will present its innovative projects online and receive questions from experts and media, and finally the review committee will select 5 final winners. The awarding ceremony will be on the evening of November 12.

In addition, the "Online Popular City " voting campaign of the 5^th Guangzhou Award is going on, people around the world can visit the official website of Guangzhou Award (http://vote.guangzhouaward.org/vote.html) to vote, and the voting results will also be announced in the awarding ceremony. 

Helping Each Other in the Face of Challenges

Contributing City Power for a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind

At the press conference, Guangzhou's innovation in urban governance was highly appreciated by international guests. The reporter learned that in recent years, Guangzhou has been actively participating in global urban governance, promoting open cooperation, supporting the sustainable development of cities in the world, and contributing to the building of a community of shared future for mankind. In particular, Guangzhou has played an active role in the work of the UCLG and Metropolis, continuously expanded the international "circle of friends", built a multilateral friendship city cooperation mechanism, spared no effort in the international cooperation in combating Covid-19 and in sharing Guangzhou's governance experience to continuously build an exchange and cooperation platform.

"Guangzhou has shown us the path towards innovation. It has shared with us its culture, the way that people live in Guangzhou. But it has also shared with us a great level of solidarity and generosity, trying to foster a true dialogue and looking towards the future." Emilia Saiz, Secretary General of the World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments, said in the video that Guangzhou has played a very active role in the leadership of the UCLG since 2010. 

Emilia Saiz believes, at this time, the only way to overcome the negative effects of the pandemic is to come together, to think together and to seek solutions together. Many solutions will be triggered in cities. As a mega-city, Guangzhou has an open mind, many traders and unique culture while also actively fosters exchanges and links the Guangzhou Award with sustainable development goals. "This approach is groundbreaking and inspires us to build a more sustainable future. We are convinced that over the coming days, we will have fruitful exchanges with mayors from across the world and participants of the UCLG. Looking forward to returning to Guangzhou," she said.

Metropolis, the international organization for large cities around the world that grew out of the rise of multilateral engagement among cities in the world, currently has 143 member cities, all of which are large cities with a population of over one million. Through building international platform for experience and resources sharing among large cities in the world, Metropolis is committed to addressing urban issues and promoting sustainable development for cities. In 2020, Guangzhou participated in the bid for the presidential city of Metropolis and was successfully elected. This is the first time a Chinese city held the presidency of Metropolis, reflecting the high recognition by the international community of Guangzhou's role in global urban governance over the years.

       Metropolis members acknowledged the loyal and continuous support of Guangzhou regarding Metropolis and the work that it has carried out around urban innovation. All the shortlisted cities of each round of the Guangzhou Awards are incorporated in our reference platform of urban practice, the so called “USE – Urban Sustainable Experiences.” Octavi de la Varga, Secretary General of Metropolis, said at the press conference that under the leadership of Guangzhou, the organization's presidential city, Metropolis has expanded the space for dialogue and exchange, while also worked to develop exchange platforms and improve learning strategies.

The World Congress of Metropolis, held every 3 years, is the highest level and most significant international conference of the organization. This is the first time it is hosted by a Chinese city. Octavi de la Varga said that the Covid-19 pandemic has shown the need for an urgent change in the urban model. The world is coming to understand that “we need more and better public spaces”, and that recovering our pre-pandemic pace of life is simply not enough anymore. Next, under the framework of the 13^th Metropolis World Congress, member cities will continue the debate by putting forward innovative solutions that can transform metropolitan spaces over the long term.

"Global cities need to watch each other's backs and join hands to tackle various crises and challenges." Deng Changxiong said Guangzhou is willing to take this event as an opportunity to further practice the idea of the community with a shared future for mankind, continue to fight the pandemic together with cities across the world, work to promote economic recovery and innovation in urban governance, and create a safer environment and a better future for the people.