The online signing ceremony gets underway. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, or GIUI – based in Guangzhou on April 22 signed a memorandum of understanding with CALAN to establish a strategic relationship with an umbrella organization representing a slew of cities in North America.

CALAN stands for la Conferencia de Autoridades Locales de América del Norte in Spanish, which means the conference of local governments in North America.

CALAN -- set up by Mexico City, capital of Mexico in 2019 -- is a friendly cooperation organization for cities in North America, with the aim of strengthening the role of local governments and solving common problems in urban development.

Meanwhile, the GIUI was set up in 2013 under the framework of the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation. Its aim is to establish a global urban innovation system, promote friendly communications and cooperation among global cities and boost the harmonious development of cities around the world.

Carlos Ignacio Giralt Cabrales, the Mexican consul general in Guangzhou, said that Guangzhou has been playing an active role in multilateral exchanges with other cities and has formed a deep friendship with Mexico City, providing it with a lot of informative cases and experiences in urban innovation.

The Mexican envoy spoke highly of Guangzhou's electric buses, metro networks, urban landscape and green protection, noting that Mexico City could learn a lot from Guangzhou's practices in modern innovative development. 

Kuang Changping, vice chairman of the Guangzhou People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, said that the cooperation between two organizations was considered as a major step forward in the friendly cooperation between Guangzhou and Mexico City.