On October 16, the 7th Asia-Pacific Urban Forum was held in Penang, Malaysia. During the forum, the Guangzhou Award Secretariat held a Guangzhou Award Case Study side event(hereinafter called “Penang side event”) with the theme “Localizing the New Urban Agenda and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. The side event aims at promoting the international influence of The Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (the Guangzhou Award) and further promote the notion of global urban governance innovation.

With the theme of " Localizing the New Urban Agenda and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ",the past shortlisted cities, award-winning cities and excellent urban governance innovation cases of "Guangzhou Award" will be shared and presented in the Penang side event, fully demonstrating how cities play an important role in  urban governance in the procedure of realizing the New Urban Agenda and the SDGs of the United Nations, It embodies Guangzhou's role in innovating the international urban governance system, and gives full play to the role of "Guangzhou Award" as an international platform for gathering global urban innovation cases.

During the first part of this side event, Ms. Xing Xiang, Deputy Secretary General of Guangzhou Municipal Government, Ms. Agnes Bickart, Senior Manager of Institutional Relations, METROPOLIS, and Ms. Cerin Kizhakkethottam, Regional Project Management Advisor from the Sustainable Urban Development Section of EDD, UN ESCAP gave opening addresses successively. In the second part, Ms. Hurrem Betul LEVENT ERDAL, Project Coordinator of Mezitli Municipality Mayor's Office shared the Mezitli Women Producers Market case which won the shortlisted cities award in 2018. Besides, Mr. Pandu Zanuar of Spatial Planning Analyst from Malang City Secretariat gave an example of Transforming Glintung Go Green from Flood Risk Area: "Water Banking Movement" which is a shortlisted city case in 2016.

It is worth mentioning that on October 10,Guangzhou was announced a category winner fro Green Technologies during the C40 award ceremony held during the 2019 C40 World Mayors Summit for its successful development and promotion of electric bus project. At this side meeting, Ms. Shen Ying, who is a party group member and chief engineer of Guangzhou Transportation Bureau , also presented this award-winning case of “China Guangzhou Bus Electrification”.By sharing innovative urban governance cases , three cities from different countries presented how different governments carried out the New Urban Agenda and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in diverse social, economic and environmental background.

The Guangzhou Award was co-founded by UCLG and Metropolis. It is held every two years aiming at encouraging innovative practices in cities around the globe and promoting sustainable development. Since it took place in 2012, nearly 1000 city have participated in the award. Guangzhou Award closely connects with SDGs of the UN which has attracted extensive attention worldwide and supported by the international society. Now it becomes the most important driving force for innovative global urban governance.

The Asia-Pacific Urban Forum is the summit forum initiated for cities in the Asia-Pacific region. It is a multilateral communication and cooperation platform in the Asia-Pacific region.The Seventh Asia-Pacific Urban Forum (APUF-7) held from 15-17 October 2019 in Penang, Malaysia, to mobilize partners from across the region to focus on accelerating implementation to achieve a sustainable future for cities throughout Asia and the Pacific. Held every several years since the first APUF was held in Bangkok in 1993, the Forum is the largest regional gathering of urban stakeholders, engaging policymakers from local and national governments, financial institutions, civil society, the academia, the urban training-research community and private sector to discuss innovative solutions, identify common actions and objectives and strengthen effective partnerships to achieve sustainable urban development.