Under the guidance of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC) and the Foreign Affairs Office of Guangzhou Municipal People's Government, during the time of the Meeting for UCLG Members of Chinese Mainland on July 9, 2020, the Guangzhou Award Secretariat has organized the 2020 online meeting on videos sharing about the excellent international urban innovation initiatives, aiming to share the excellent initiatives and governance experience of urban innovation with cities around the world. CPAFFC’s Vice President Song Jingwu and Liu Baochun, the Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of Guangzhou Municipal Government have attended and addressed the meeting, which was hosted by Guan Litong, the Deputy director of CPAFFC’s Eurasia Department. A total of more than 80 representatives from 27 cities in China attended the meeting. Nicholas You, Executive Director of the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation and former Chairman of the World Urban Campaign Committee of UN-Habitat, and Bao Yajun, Advisor of the Guangzhou Award from Peking University has delivered keynote speeches respectively.

At the meeting, Mr. Nicholas You explained the adjustment of the rules of the 5th cycle of the Guangzhou Award in response to the Coronavirus epidemic, and introduced the following three initiatives from previous years, Surabaya (Indonesia), Milan (Italy) and Boston (USA), which illustrated the highlights of innovation. In conjunction with the Guangzhou Award, Mr. Bao Yajun gave a speech on urban governance in China. The participants interacted actively and shared their governance experiences with each other.

The meeting encouraged and promoted innovative governance in cities around the world, implemented the Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda at the local level, achieved common progress in governance and provided local government wisdom for global economic and social development through mutual learning, and contributed more "Chinese Approach" to global sustainable development.

The submission for the 5th cycle of the Guangzhou Award is now underway and the deadline for applications is October 31st, 2020. The Evaluation by Technical Committee will be held in December this year and the Final Assessment and the award ceremony will coincide with the Global Mayors Forum hosted in 2021. We look forward to more outstanding Chinese urban innovation initiatives to be shown on the international stage, to exchange and learn from global cities, and to contribute to global urban governance with "Chinese wisdom".