2023 Shanghai-Espoo Sustainable Development Thematic Event held at SASS

The 2023 Shanghai-Espoo Sustainable Development Thematic Event was held at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS) on Oct3 0. The participants included officials from Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-rural Construction Development and Management and the Foreign Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government, experts from the SASS, and representatives from Espoo and Finnish enterprises.

The event, themed “Empowering Inter-City Collaborations Through the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, was designed to bolster knowledge exchange and sustainability experience sharing between Shanghai and Espoo, which celebrate the 25th anniversary of their twinning relationship this year, and explore common paths for the two cities to strive for a more sustainable future.

Li Chunping, the 2nd inspector of Shanghai Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, the director of the European & African Affairs Department of Shanghai Municipal Foreign Affairs Office; Mari Päätalo, Development Manager, Mobility and Digitalisation, Excellence Centre of Sustainable Development, City of Espoo; Gan Chunhui, Vice President of SASS; and Cheng Jian, Director of Shanghai Coordination Center of World Cities Day, delivered opening speeches.

In his keynote speech, Dr. Yu Hongyuan, Director of Institute for Public Policy and Innovation Studies, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, shared his insights into the significance of inter-city cooperation for the 2030 Agenda. He said a multilateral inter-city cooperation network should be set up to promote sustainable development, and emphasis should be laid on cooperation among governments, social organizations and urban residents.

Dr. Ville Taajamaa, SDG Project Manager, Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, Mayor's Office, City of Espoo, shared Espoo’s practices for the SDGsfrom a macroscopic perspective. He said, to tackle the economic, climate and other urban development issues that Europe was facing, it was very important to have exchanges and cooperation between the governments and the academic circles. He added that only by involving more cities and citizens in the sustainability evaluation could sustainable urban development be promoted efficiently.

Dr.&Prof. Deng Zhituan, Deputy Director of Think Tank Research Division, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the representative of the UN SDGs Shanghai Voluntary Local Review (Shanghai VLR) Research Team, gave the participants a specific introduction to the initiation, structure, characteristics and preparation of the Shanghai VLR 2023.

Then the Shanghai VLR 2023 was unveiled.