On October 27, the Sino-German seminar on Building Future-oriented Urban Crisis Management was held at SAI. Nearly 20 experts and scholars from Potsdam, Dusseldorf, and Shanghai participated in the online seminar and exchanged their ideas. Vice President ZENGJun and René Bormann,chief representative of FES Shanghai Office, a non-profit organization from Germany, made the opening speeches, and Provost MEI Lihong concluded the seminar and made a closing speech.

On behalf of the Shanghai Administration Institute, ZENGJin extended warm congratulations to the opening of the seminar. He said that the public crisis of the global pandemic highlights the importance of strengthening international cooperation and exchange, and that todays seminar is not only anacademic conference aiming to promote urban crisis management in the future, but also a major platform and opportunity to promote the friendship between China and Germany, so that the two can work together to cope with the international crisis andbuild a community of shared future for mankind

René Bormann said that the cooperation between the Shanghai Administration Institute and FES has lasted for many years, with a number ofbilateral seminars and exchanges. And we just co-held a workshop on technological change and the development of the digital economy in July. Due to the epidemic, the seminar had to be held online, which saved the cost and time of international travel and enriched the form of cooperation between the two sides.

In her closing speech MEILihong said that the seminar can be taken as an opportunity to further strengthen the research and exploration of urban crisis management, so as to seek opportunities in any crisis and turn the crisis into an opportunity.

At the seminar, Dr. Graf, director of the Economic History Department of the Centre for Modern History of Potsdam Bunitz, gave a speech entitled "Motivation for Action and BeingIncapable of Action", defining thecrises in the 20^thand 21^stcenturies. Hosman, an expert from the Fire, Rescue, and Civil Defense Authority of Dusseldorf, capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, introduced the practice of German fire services in dealing with the crisis. Professor DONGYouhong, executive director of the Emergency Training Center of SAI, introduced the fine management of crisis in themegacity of Shanghai and the experience it offers.