On November 10, the Third Urban Governance Forum---National Academic Seminar on “Chinese Modernization and High-Quality Urban Development” was held at Shanghai Party Institute of CPC (“SPI”).

“Cities should be built by the people and for the people.”. The report of the Party’s 20^th National Congress defines the value orientation, goals and tasks, and methods and paths regarding the construction of modern cities, which is of great significance to promoting high-quality urban development and Chinese modernization. The main forum on Chinese Modernization and High-Quality Urban Development” was hosted by the Department of Economics and Management of SPI.

ZENG Jun, vice president of SPI, delivered an academic speech. He said that high-quality urban development has laid a more solid material foundation for Chinese modernization. Since the Party’s 18^th National Congress, China’s achievements in urban development have attracted worldwide attention, with significant improvement in the housing conditions of urban residents, the urban living environment, the city’s comprehensive carrying capacity, the urban governance system, and the protection and inheritance of urban history and culture, as well as many other indicators. High-quality urban development has activated the innovation power for Chinese modernization. Cities will tend to be intensive, intelligent, and low-carbon, and will surely become the main engine for technological innovation, industrial upgrading, and economic development. High-quality urban development has also guaranteed Chinese modernization. Cities are not only the locomotive of Chinese modernization, but also the ballast stone for the smooth operation of China’s economy and society. Only by promoting high-quality urban development, improving the modernization level of governance capabilities, and building a modern urban economic system can the sustainable and long-term progress of Chinese modernization be safeguarded.

Professor HAN Baojiang, former director of the Economics Teaching and Research Department of the Party School of the Central Committee of CPC, gave a speech titled “Problems and Solutions in Pursuing Chinese Modernization.” He said that the realization of Chinese modernization faces problems such as an aging population, large regional development gaps, “new modernization issues” caused by digitalization and intelligence, and how to coordinate security and development. Faced with these difficulties, we must coordinate effective improvement in quality and reasonable growth in quantity; coordinate supply-side reform and the strategy of expanding domestic demand; implement innovation-driven development and strive to solve the “bottleneck” problems; promote institutional opening-up; and keep the base line for zero systemic risk.

Researcher ZHOU Zhenhua, president of the Shanghai Economist Association and director of the Shanghai Institute for Global City, said that there is no unified standard now for the construction of Chinese modern global cities; the construction of global cities is not about taking the lead in realizing modernization, but about building a city with characteristics, especially in areas like city form and function, spatial layout, technological innovation, industrial upgrading, quality of life, and environmental governance.

Professor YUAN Zhigang, former dean of the School of Economics at Fudan University, said that despite the difficulties in China’s industrial transformation and upgrading, it proved a success in general. In the future industrial restructuring, Shanghai should continue to play a key role by leveraging China’s diverse regional differences and its leading position in the Yangtze River Delta.

Professor LI Shi, dean of the Institute for Common Prosperity and Development of Zhejiang University, said that one important feature of Chinese modernization is the inclusive development in cities. And to promote that inclusiveness, it is necessary to establish a unified national market to achieve equal pay for equal work, reform the household registration system, ensure the free migration of the labor force and population, and guarantee the migrant population permanent urban residency and equal access to public services.

Professor WANG Manchuan, director of the Public Administration Teaching and Research Department of the Party School of the Central Committee of CPC, reviewed the changes in urban governance in China and summarized the valuable experience in urban governance in the PRC. Researcher WANG Zhen, vice president of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, outlined spatially the Yangtze River Delta innovation map. Professor ZHANG Xu from the Institute of Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, elaborated on Chinese modernization from the perspective of historical continuity and integrity. Professor YIN Desheng, dean of the School of Economics at East China Normal University, discussed how Shanghai can achieve a new high-level open economic system and new development pattern from the perspectives of investment-driven, digital-driven, and rule-driven strategies. Professor CHEN Qiang from the Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, reviewed how Shanghai tried to build a global science and technology innovation city from the perspectives of the Yangtze River Delta and globalization. Associate Professor LI Lu and Lecturer WANG Chunying from the Department of Economics and Management of SPI also gave speeches respectively. The conference was hosted by Professor ZHOU Jingqing, director of the Division of Scientific Research Management of SPI, and YE Zhudi, editor-in-chief of Exploration And Free Views.

In the afternoon, more than 300 experts and scholars attended the online or offline five parallel sub-forums, namely the “Forum on Promoting the Collaborative Development of the Yangtze River Delta through Urban Governance Modernization and the Yangtze River Delta Collaborative Innovation in Public Administration Research” hosted by the Department of Public Administration, the forum on “Digital Transformation of Urban Grassroots Governance” hosted by the Department of Sociology, the forum on “Continuously Improving the Ability to Lead and Promote Modernization” hosted by the Department of Leadership Science, the forum on “Cultivating Exemplary World-Class Enterprises” hosted by the Department of Economics and Management, and the forum on “Improving the Quality of Life Throughout the High-quality Development of the City” hosted by the Shanghai Development Research Institute.