On the afternoon of June 27, a special session of Shanghai Global Sustainable Development City Award (referred to as Shanghai Award hereafter) and Shanghai Index, jointly organized by UN Habitat and the Shanghai World City Day Coordination Center at the 11th World Urban Forum, came to a successful end in Katowice, Poland. With the theme of "accelerating research of Shanghai Award and Shanghai Index, and empowering cities with sustainable urban development", the session introduced to the world the Shanghai Award and Shanghai Index both offline and online. Experts from Tongji University were invited to make keynote speeches at the special session on behalf of the Shanghai Index research team.
The special session of Shanghai Award and Shanghai Index held at
the 11th World Urban Forum in Katowice, Poland
XU Xiaofeng, minister counsellor of Economy and Commerce from the Embassy of China in Poland, Robert Ndugwa, director of Data Analysis Department of UN Habitat, and YAO Kai, director of Shanghai Housing and Urban & Rural Development Committee, delivered speeches respectively.
Dr. CHEN Haiyun, chief expert of the Shanghai Index research team and researcher of the Institute of Sustainable Development and Management, School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, delivered a keynote speech entitled "vision, objectives, strategic orientation, index system and global application of Shanghai Index", which introduced in detail the connotation of the three strategic orientations of Shanghai Index, i.e. "people-oriented", "five in one" and "international standards", a comprehensive framework of the Shanghai Index "1+5+n", the design principles of the index system, the core indicators agreed by UN Habitat and the international expert group, as well as the selection criteria and data collection and application of global pilot cities. He shared Tongji University's experience in integrating relevant disciplines with platforms for the Shanghai Index Research Institute, and expressed his gratitude to UN Habitat and other UN agencies for their strong support and the participation of international academic partners. At the end of the speech, he also concluded with the spirit of sharing weal and woe, calling on more cities, research institutions, social organizations, experts and scholars around the world to participate in the cooperative research, application and promotion of the Shanghai Index and contribute to the implementation of the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
Dr. CHEN Haiyun delivering a keynote speech
As Chinese members of the research team, a doctoral student ZHOU Zhuo on a joint PhD program with Tongji University, Munich University of Technology, and Berlin University of Technology, an MBA student YANG Fen, and a Master's student GAO Yuan, travelled from Germany to Katowice, Poland to participate in the on-site forum. They joined Dr. CHEN Haiyun in sharing their research results of the Shanghai Index, and participated in the UN Habitat Shanghai Index global promotion.
ZHOU Zhuo, YANG Fen and GAO Yuan at the special session
Shanghai Index is an international authoritative index for the assessment of the sustainable development of global cities, research of which was supported by the Shanghai Municipal Government, the Ministry of Housing and Urban & Rural Development of China and UN Habitat. The research was completed under the leadership of a Chinese research team and UN Habitat, with participation of experts and scholars from a number of countries around the world as well as other relevant UN agencies. It is officially confirmed and released by UN Habitat. The Chinese research team of the Shanghai Index is headed by Professor ZHU Dajian and Dr. CHEN Haiyun of the School of Economics and Management of Tongji University.
During the World City Day on October 31 last year, the comprehensive index system framework of the Shanghai Index was officially released to the world. Subsequently, the research team continued to promote the research work of the Shanghai Index. Through several rounds of discussions among expert panels, UN Habitat and other UN agencies, important research results (programs) such as the "strategic orientation", "index system" and "global pilot" of the Shanghai Index were highly recognized by UN Habitat, and UN Habitat promoted them to the world at the World Urban Forum.
The Shanghai Index will be included in the UN Habitat’s Global Cities project, which is expected to cover the sustainable development assessment of nearly 1000 major cities in the world by 2030. In addition, the Shanghai Index will become important indicators for the Shanghai Award jointly established by UN Habitat, the Ministry of Housing and Urban & Rural Development of China and the Shanghai Municipal Government.
