GUANGZHOU, China, Dec. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On the night of December 7, 2023, the award ceremony of the 6^th Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award) was held at Guangzhou Yuexiu International Congress Center. Bogotá, Colombia; Chalandri, Greece; Gwangju, Republic of Korea; Kampala, Uganda; and Xianning, China won the 6^th Guangzhou Award. Among them, Xianning, China also claimed the honor of "City of Your Choice".

At the ceremony, short films about Guangzhou Award and the 15 shortlisted initiatives were presented and the Chair of the 6^th Guangzhou Award Jury announced the selection results. Ten cities, including Antalya, Türkiye; Cape Town, South Africa; Iztapalapa, Mexico; Jakarta, Indonesia; Kazan, Russia; Mannheim, Germany; Pimpri Chinchwad, India; Ramallah, Palestine; São Paulo, Brazil; and Tehran, Iran received Medals of Honor of the Guangzhou Award. Subsequently, representatives from Bogotá, Chalandri, Gwangju, Kampala, and Xianning, the five winners of the 6^th Guangzhou Award, accepted the award and delivered their acceptance speeches.

The attendees to the ceremony unanimously agreed that Guangzhou Award has created a new, global platform for cities to exchange urban innovation experience, deepened the city-to-city learning on urban innovation, sparked new changes and fresh insights in urban innovation, and in doing so, propelled the urban innovation and sustainable development of cities worldwide.

Over the past 11 years, six cycles of Guangzhou Award have been held biennially, attracting 1,635 initiatives from 653 cities and regions of 101 countries. These initiatives cover a wide range of areas, including infrastructure and public services, urban planning and good governance, partnerships, technology, resilience, social inclusion and gender equality. The Guangzhou Award has now evolved into an important public product that promotes exchanges and city-to-city learning in global urban governance innovation, and a distinguished emblem for Guangzhou to showcase among global cities.

It is learned that the 6^th Guangzhou Award received a wide range of responses from cities and regions around the world. A total of 274 initiatives were submitted by 193 cities and regions representing 54 countries and territories, the number of participating cities and initiatives both surpassing those of previous cycles.