On September 13, Professor Wen Xueguo, Executive Vice President of Shanghai Academy, gave a keynote speech entitled “Building an Excellent Global City: Historical Review and Shanghai’s Choice” at the International Seminar for Young Scholars on Economic Development Issues, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. More than 30 excellent young scholars in cultural and social science research circles from state-level research institutions and higher education institutions in 23 countries and regions, namely Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Belarus, Russia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Burma, Mexico, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, India, Indonesia and Vietnam, listened to the speech.
In his speech, Professor Wen Xieguo first reviewed Shanghai's economic and social development before and after the reform and opening-up, and then made a detailed analysis of Shanghai’s historical, cultural, geographical and policy advantages during its growth into a veritable economic center in China, a bellwether of the national reform and opening-up, and a pioneer of innovative development. He pointed out that, although Shanghai has made great achievements in the process of economic and social development, it has also paid a corresponding price, facing such problems as serious population aging, traffic congestion, high housing prices, and insufficient public service resources. In the future, Shanghai will; focus on provision for the aged, high-quality public service resources, social governance and other problems; explore new paths and new methods in line with the characteristics and rule of development of megacities; advance its construction of “four centers”, and continue to progress as a “Science and Technology Innovation Center” with global influence, so as to close to its objective of growing into a global city.
Professors Wen Xueguo also put forward his own viewpoints for the construction of urban agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta. He suggested adopting a cooperative, collaborative and integrated mode between cities, to build a co-development model contributing to orderly work division and enhancing regional competitiveness. He also proposed to let factors gather and freely flow, within the scope of urban agglomeration, and make the “Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration” a region with tangible vitality, featuring the largest migrant population and the highest degree of openness and innovation in China.
In the Q&A session, Professor Wen Xueguo gave detailed explanations of China’s social security system, Shanghai’s GDP growth, and cooperation cases between Shanghai and international metropolises. The participant atmosphere was very active and the interaction very fruitful.
The “International Seminar for Young Scholars on Economic Development Issues, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences” is one of the innovative programs of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and has benefited from the concern and guidance of leaders from CASS. Since 2012, the seminar has now successfully held six sessions, attended by nearly 180 young scholars under 45 years old from state-level research institutions, think tanks and higher education institutions from 28 countries and regions, namely Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Iran, Turkey, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Senegal). Over the past six years, the Program has trained a large number of elites in the political circle, academic circle and higher education circle in neighboring countries who recognize China’s cultural and social science achievements, understand economic development concepts, and admire China's economic and social development achievements, and has laid a good civil diplomacy and academic diplomacy foundation for China to develop relations with neighboring countries and promote the cultural exchange cause in the “One Belt and One Road” initiative.
(By Xiang Meijin)
