As part of the main events of One Award, One Conference and One Festival, forum activities were held successfully on Dec 6 and 7, at the Four Seasons Hotel, Guangzhou Library, and at the Canton Tower. Forum activities comprised of seven forums, namely a Keynote Forum (Urban Governance Innovation: From Idea to Action), and six Sub Forums (2016 Guangzhou -- Hong Kong -- Macao -- Taiwan Science and Technology Innovation Forum and Project Matchmaking, International Engineers' Forum: Craftsmanship Spirits and Innovation, Regeneration and Transformation of Historic and Cultural Cities Forum, New Development Concepts and Urban Innovation, The Belt and Road Initiative & International Innovative Urban Development, Innovation on Urban Development Strategies -- Hub-type Network City). Guests from home and abroad gathered together to share their opinions and collect wisdom and solutions for urban innovation through different aspects.

Participants share their opinions at the Keynote Forum -- Urban Governance Innovation: From Idea to Action. [Photo/provided to guangzhouaward.org]

Keynote Forum: opening chapter of urban governance

On Dec 7, the Keynote Forum, co-hosted by the School of Government at Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation (GIUI) and Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Research Center of Sun Yat-sen University, consisted of two parts, Keynote Speech and Experts Dialogue, which were respectively moderated by professors from the School of Government of Sun Yat-sen University: Dr. He Yanling and Dr. Ye Lin.

Dr. Yu Keping, Dean of the School of Government, Peking University accepted the invitation and made a keynote speech at the forum. He stated that innovation, which was presented first among the five development concepts in the Fifth Plenary Session of 18th CPC Central Committee, was an unprecedented consensus in modern China. And he also pointed out that the work of urban governance innovation needed to focus on and start from governance, service, sharing and integration. To transform single-dimensional governance, government, to multi-dimensional governance; to change the "control-type government" to a "service-oriented government", and to establish a new urban governance service system; to reform and perfect the urban system for sharing and welfare; and to address the issue of fragmentation in urban development process and promote the integration of different resident groups.

Following the Keynote Speech was the Experts Dialogue with five global cities' leaders and experts from the field of urban governance. Mr. Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, UK, Ms. Helena Balthammar, Mayor of Linköping, Sweden, Dr. Lan Zhiyong, Professor of School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Dr. Zhu Dajian, Director of Research Center of Sustainable Development and Governance, Tongji University and Dr. Shi Nan, Vice President of International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) took part in the dialogue and expressed their ideas on the topic.

Dr. Yu Keping, Dean of the School of Government, Peking University makes a keynote speech at the Keynote Forum. [Photo/provided to guangzhouaward.org]

Sub Forums: storage of perspectives and global wisdom

In addition to one Keynote Forum, there were six sub forums adding highlights to the series of events of One Award, One Conference and One Festival.

In the afternoon of Dec 6, 2016 Guangzhou -- Hong Kong -- Macao -- Taiwan Science and Technology Innovation Forum and Project Matchmaking, co-hosted by Guangzhou Science Technology and Innovation Commission and GIUI, and co-organized by Guangzhou Research Institute of O-M-E Technology, was held successfully at Guangzhou Library. The forum attracted attendance of nearly 100 S&T innovative talents from Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and Australia. Over 130 S&T innovation projects were collected at the conference, among which 73 promising projects was presented for matchmaking, covering the city's key industrial fields of bio-medicine, new material, smart manufacturing, supercomputer and big data.

2016 Guangzhou -- Hong Kong -- Macao -- Taiwan Science and Technology Innovation Forum and Project Matchmaking is held in Guangzhou Library on Dec 6. [Photo/provided to guangzhouaward.org]

On the same day, another forum was held at the Canton Tower, co-hosted by Guangzhou Science Technology and Innovation Commission, GIUI and XINHUANET. LTD: the International Engineers' Forum: Craftsmanship Spirit and Innovation. World-class engineers from the US, Germany, Ukraine and Israel and global countries and regions attended the forum and offered their insights on the theme "Craftsmanship Spirit and Innovation". It was an event aimed at enhancing global cooperation and communication of innovation and science and technology. Mr. Ma Zhengyong, Director of Guangzhou Science Technology and Innovation Commission emphasized that Guangzhou's Innovation should be forward-looking and practical at the same time. "We need a high-speed innovation and a quick response to opportunities while need to stick to Guangdong pragmatic spirit inherited from 2,000 years ago and focus on details".

The next day, Dec 7, four sub forums at Guangzhou Library gathered professionals of urban governance from home and abroad together to exchange ideas and collect wisdom and solutions for urban innovation.