2022 Global Urban Development Report, Case Studies Report and Development Index Released
The 4th World Urban Development Seminar and the Release Conference for the 2022 Global Urban Development Report, Case Studies Report, and Development Indexes took place on April 1st, 2023. The seminar’s theme was “Digitalization Empowers Global Urban Development”. The event was jointly sponsored by the Shanghai Institute for Global City, Shanghai People's Publishing House, and Gezhi Publishing House, and undertaken by the Shanghai Institute for Global City at ECNU.
Dr. Zhou Zhenhua, Director of the Shanghai Institute for Global City, introduced the “2022 Global Urban Development Report” and the “2022 Global Urban Case Studies”. He observed that the people-centered philosophy of development should be the key to achieving urban digital transformation, and for people to realize their high value should be the ultimate goal of the said transformation. In the process of digitization, it is crucial to have a definite strategic positioning and a workable roadmap for digital transformation to accelerate urban digitalization and empower urban development.
Associate professor Sheng Wei from Shanghai Strategic Development Research Center introduced the “2022 Global Urban Development Index”. The research team, starting from the conceptual framework of global urban digital transformation, constructed an evaluation system covering infrastructure digitalization, economic digitalization, social digitalization, and governance digitalization. The Index provides a graphic portrayal of the top 10 cities in urban digital transformation. They decided that the digital transformation of infrastructure serves as the foundation for transformation, the governance digital transformation is the key that oversees all digital transformations, while the economic and lifestyle digital transformations are the applications that collectively drive sustainable development in urban areas.”
Prof. An Chenxian from Shanghai Jiao Tong University noted that digital transformation, as a significant transition occurring globally, will underpin the future of work, life, and production activities on digital platforms. Research on empowering global cities with digitalization needs to be further deepened and expanded into specific domains. Prof. Ning Yuemin from ECNU shared his experiences along with the growth of the internet, emphasizing that in the era of the digital economy, the application of advanced technology will depend on the human capital that a city possesses. Globally influential cities and the urban clusters around them should take the lead in promoting digital transformation and setting an example. Professor Jiang Yanpeng from ECNU remarked that digitalization is right now influencing the changing dynamics of global cities in regional competition. How to construct a better ecosystem to sustain and promote urban digitalization is the direction for the integrated development of global cities and regions.
Focusing on the theoretical interpretations and practical validation of urban digital transformation, the Shanghai Institute for Global City has documented the new trends and characteristics of how global cities empower economic and social development through digital transformation. They have modelled global urban digital transformation, resulting in a series of forward-looking research achievements that have been released over the past four years in succession.
