On September 14th, the 15 Shortlisted Cities of the 6th Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award) were officially released: Antalya, Türkiye; Bogotá, Colombia; Cape Town, South Africa; Gwangju, Korea; Halandri, Greece; Iztapalapa, Mexico; Jakarta, Indonesia; Kampala, Uganda; Kazan, Russia; Mannheim, Germany; Pimpri Chinchwad, India; Ramallah, Palestine; São Paulo, Brazil; Tehran, Iran; Xianning, China. 

274 initiatives from 193 cities and regions in 54 countries submitted valid applications to the 6th cycle of the Guangzhou Award. Five countries submitted for the first time. A Technical Committee of international experts met in the Guangzhou Library 11-14 September 2023. The selection was based on the criteria of innovation, effectiveness, context, and replicability and their relevance to the local implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the New Urban Agenda (NUA), The 11 TC members from 11 countries selected 45 Deserving initiatives, from which 15 shortlisted cities stood out. 

ZHANG Yajie, Vice Chairman of Guangzhou Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Emilia Saiz, Secretary General of UCLG and Jordi Vaquer, Secretary General of the Metropolis addressed the conference and expressed their appreciation of Guangzhou’s contribution to urban innovation and sustainable development globally. 

In ZHANG’s remarks, she said: "The initiatives collected by the 6th Guangzhou Award fully reflect the stronger determination and greater faith in the improvement of creative governance as well as innovation and sustainable development in the new era." 

The Secretary General of UCLG and the Secretary General of Metropolis expressed common recognition of the Guangzhou Award’s efforts in promoting the exchanges in global urban governance and sustainable development. Emilia Saiz said: “It has become clear that the Guangzhou Award is a reference, a space for recognition, documentation, and dissemination of localized knowledge. Through the involved networks, Metropolis, and UCLG with the leadership of the city of Guangzhou, we are ensuring the up-scaling of practices and the links between local, regional, and global agendas.” Jordi Vaquer said, “With Metropolis partnering with Guangzhou and UCLG on the Guangzhou Award for over 10 years, I see a community of innovators committed to sharing for mutual benefit.”

Following the remarks, Azza Sirry, Chair of the Technical Committee announced the 15 Shortlisted cities of this year’s Guangzhou Award. She introduced that this year’s Guangzhou Award has received many submissions with high-quality initiatives, whether from the perspective of urban innovative development, or the attention to social inclusion and civic participation. Those initiatives all boasted relatively-advanced representativeness and reference value.

After the release, with the topic of High-quality Development and Urban Innovation, Kobie Brand, Deputy Secretary General of ICLEI, Chief Executive Officer and Regional Director of ICLEI Africa; Dyan Currie, Chief Planner of the Brisbane City Council and Lead of Brisbane 2032 Host City Office, together with other experts and scholars, discussed how to make cities healthier, safer and more livable places for high-quality life by promoting the modernization of the urban industrial system, governance capacity and culture type. 

The Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award) is co-sponsored by the City of Guangzhou, UCLG and Metropolis since 2012. With more than 1,300 initiatives worldwide over the past five cycles, it has become a global platform for global knowledge creation and city-to-city learning on urban innovation. 

Download: 15 Shortlisted Cities-6th Guangzhou Award

Download: 30 Deserving Cities-6th Guangzhou Award