HSE University Urban Planners Take Part in Global Mayors’ Forum in Guangzhou, China
A team from HSE University's Faculty of Urban and Regional Development took part in the Global Mayor’s Forum—a global event in urban development. Held in December 2023 in Guangzhou (PRC), the largest congress of urban planners brought together more than 800 guests from 65 cities and 37 countries, as well as nine international organisations.
The forum, which was jointly organised by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government, the World Urban Organisation, and the World Association of Megacities, aims to share experiences in urban innovation and sustainable development.
HSE University was represented at the forum by experts from the Faculty of Urban and Regional Development: First Deputy Dean Efim Fidrya, Deputy Dean for International Affairs Victoria Khomich, Head of the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism Ruslan Goncharov, and Associate Professor of the GSU Kirill Puzanov. They took part in the opening ceremony of the Global Mayors' Forum and the award ceremony of the 6th Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation.
In addition, together with their Chinese colleagues, the HSE University team presented the Urban & Innovation Environment Index project at the special session High-Level Urban Opening-Up—Global Cities Research dedicated to the openness of cities and their innovative development. The report was met with great interest from forum participants, city authorities, and urban development experts from Asia, Latin America, Africa, and other regions. The index was the work of an international consortium consisting of scientific organisations from China, India, and Russia and was first presented by Chinese colleagues at the BRICS International Innovation Forum in Moscow. Designed to assess the balance of urban development, the tool was the subject of wide discussion and received positive reviews in leading Chinese media, demonstrating the exclusivity and innovativeness of the proposed approach to assessing cities.
The working meetings included both official negotiations and expressions of gratitude to the faculty’s partners: Guo Fengzhi, Secretary General of the Guangdong-CIS International Technological Cooperation Union, Yu Feng, Professor at South China University of Technology, and Wu Qingyu, Vice President of the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences. The parties discussed the further development of project cooperation, opportunities for educational exchange, international scientific research, and prospects for creating mirror laboratories and joint research centres.
Faculty members also made official visits to the Asia-Pacific Institute of Innovation and Industrial Research, the leading research centre in Guangdong Province. The parties held negotiations and discussed a plan for the development of bilateral cooperation in scientific and research activities.
First Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Urban and Regional Development
Since 2021, our faculty has been purposefully building relations with Chinese partners. The PRC’s achievements in regional and urban development, the development of transport infrastructure and digital city services over the past few decades are truly impressive, and this experience needs to be carefully studied. Our Chinese colleagues have also shown great interest in best Russian practices—it is no coincidence that Moscow is one of the world leaders in terms of urban environment development, urban innovation, and the pace of urban development. Our visit was another step on the path of great and fruitful cooperation, which the faculty will continue to actively work on next year.
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