Shenzhen fosters international unity and success through NGO

Shenzhen, a boom city in South China, has teamed up with innovative peers across the world to strengthen cooperation and share resources of technologies, knowledge and talent.

The city launched a non-government organization called World Innovative Cities Cooperation Organization in 2021, and has since recruited 77 cities and innovation institutes from home and abroad to participate in the program.

"The development of WICCO has served as an opportunity for Shenzhen and other innovative cities and institutes across the globe to build an international ecosphere for innovative cooperation," said Yao Ren, deputy secretary-general of Shenzhen municipal government, on Monday.

It took just four decades for Shenzhen to grow from a fishing town into one of the most important innovation hubs of China, Yao said. Upholding the innovation-driven strategy, the city has continued to improve its innovation eco-chain to become one a world leader in scientific and technological development, he added.

Yao made the remarks at a conference on innovation policy and practice in Shenzhen, a new move under the framework of WICCO to drive forward international exchanges and cooperation in the field of innovation.

Mayors, vice-mayors and city promotion directors from some of the member cities, including Tsukuba and Kobe of Japan, Barcelona of Spain, Brisban of Australia and Turin of Italy, recently shared their latest innovative projects and practices.

Igarashi Tatsuo, mayor of Tsukuba, introduced the city's scientific town project through a video speech and described the experimental actions it has taken to fulfill the project's mission of making the city smart.

Tsukuba began testing an online voting system in 2018 with the hope of completely replacing traditional paper ballots in future elections.

It also digitalized the health management of the primary and middle school students in the city, which will be applied for monitoring and prevention of infectious diseases, Tatsuo said.

Meanwhile, unmanned drones have been used to deliver packages to sparsely populated areas.

Tatsuo expressed his hope at the conference that the scientific and technological advancement will improve people's lives and contribute to humanity by providing solutions to problems that many cities are confronting.