On behalf of Chen Jianhua, mayor of Guangzhou, Zhao Fang, deputy secretary-general of Guangzhou government delivered an important speech at the open forum of Metropolis International Training Institute in Seoul, South Korea on March 13th, 2014. At the event, Zhao also promoted the 2nd Guangzhou Award and extended invitations to city representatives for participating in the 2nd Guangzhou Award. The opening forum was attended by some 120 representatives from 35 cities of 25 countries around the world.

During the opening forum, the Guangzhou delegation met with Park Won-soon, mayor of Seoul and Alan Resson, secretary-general of the World Association of the Major Metropolises. Friendly exchanges of views were conducted by the Guangzhou delegation with the two leaders on the promotion of exchanges and cooperation in personnel training, economy, trade, urban planning and construction. Mayor Park Won-soon expressed his hope that Guangzhou and Seoul would further strengthen exchanges and cooperation in public transportation, urban planning and construction. He also stated that Seoul was making active preparations for its participation in the 2nd Guangzhou Award. In addition, Resson spoke highly of Guangzhou Award and commended it as the “Nobel Prize of UCLG”, a commentary phrase that Kadir Topbas, UCLG president once used to describe Guangzhou Award.

Guangzhou acceded into the World Association of the Major Metropolises (abbreviated as the Metropolis) in 1993 and became a member city of the board of directors of the Metropolis in 1996. Over the years, Guangzhou has attached great importance to developing its relationship with the Metropolis by participating in the activities of the organization. Since the beginning of the 21st Century, Guangzhou has twice held the board of directors meeting of the Metropolis. In 2012, in cooperation with the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and the Metropolis, Guangzhou set up Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award), which aims at rewarding cities and local governments for their successful initiatives in urban innovation, sustainability promotion and livelihood improvement all over the world. At the 1st Guangzhou Award, the urban management initiative of Seoul – Dealing with Challenges Facing Youth – came to the fore among 255 application initiatives, enabling Seoul to be listed as one of the five winning cities. This initiative has attracted great attention of cities all over the world, serving as a model initiative in the field of urban management and innovation.

Since its founding, the Metropolis International Training Institute has been committed to cultivating talents for cities around the world. In recent years, the Institute has provided many training opportunities to Guangzhou government, which have yielded good results.