METROPOLIS successfully accompanied the 2nd edition of the Guangzhou Award 2014 "My City my Dream"

"This is about changing people's life, this is far better than an Oscar"
George Ferguson, Mayor of Bristol  

The second edition of the Guangzhou Award was held in Guangzhou Baiyun International Convention Center on November 28th and received the applications of 250 urban projects from 177 cities and 59 countries. Over 100 mayors and deputy mayors attended the ceremony with over 600 participants.

The final winners of the 2014 Guangzhou Award are the following:

DAKAR, Senegal: Dakar Municipal Finance Program
HANGZHOU, China: Public Bike Sharing System
CHRISTCHURH, New Zealand: Transitional City Program for our ever evolving city
ANTIOQUIA, Colombia: Educational Parks for All
BRISTOL, UK: Smart City Bristol

Among the 15 short listed Initiatives of this second edition of the Guangzhou Awards, 5 are active member cities of METROPOLIS.

. BUENOS AIRES, Argentina
. DAKAR, Senegal
. GWANGJU, Korea
. HANGZHOU, China
. RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil

The concept of the Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation is derived from the city's long term cooperation international organisations of local governments. Co-hosted  by Guangzhou Municipal Government, METROPOLIS and UCLG, the Guangzhou Award aims at rewarding innovations to improve the socio-economic environments in cities and regions, promote sustainability, and hence advance the livelihood of their citizens.

Under the slogan " My City my Dream" and the principles of transparency, fairness, independence and non-profitness, the Guangzhou Award contributes to the progress of city performances by promoting innovations in the public sector and presenting platform for cities and regions around the world to share and disseminate their achievements.

For comprehensive information on the Guangzhou Award please visit:  www.guangzhouaward.org

For more information on the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation please visit :
www.urban-innovations.org

Guangzhou is the capital of Gungdong Province and one of the five national-level central cities in China as well as a communication transportation hub and trafic port of South China. In October 2014  Guangzhou was elected as the first Co-President of METROPOLIS ad well as the host city of METROPOLIS Asia Pacific Regional Office 

In this framework, Secretary General Alain Le Saux also met with the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC). CPAFFC is a nongovernment organisation in general consultative status at UN Ecosoc, which aims at actively participating in international cooperation on behalf of Chinese local governments. During the "Top Talk on Global Cities, Friendship Cities and Urban Innovation" plenary session, held on November 28, Mayor of Guangzhou M.Chen Jianhua stressed the importance of the sister cities agreements lead by CPAFFC in fostering the tradition of friendship between Chinese and foreign cities.

In this regards both organisations confirmed their willingness to strenghten their relationship and contribute to more exchanges between METROPOLIS Chinese cities members, Chinese cities non members of METROPOLIS and the metropolises worldwide.