On the morning of October 22, Beijing and Wellington jointly held the "Smart City" seminar via a video conference. Discussions centered around the topic of "Smart Drivers for the Two Cities, Digital Sharing Across the World". Department heads, experts, and scholars from the two cities' smart urban administration, transportation, urban planning and other relevant fields were present.

The "Smart City" seminar is one of the activities being conducted in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the friendship between Beijing and Wellington. The participants exchanged ideas on topics such as smart city planning, smart transportation, and smart software applications, sharing the latest practical experience and cutting-edge development trends in this field and promoting the integration of Beijing's smart city 2.0 plan and Wellington's smart city technology application. Business representatives from the two cities also introduced the development status of autonomous driving technology and digital twin that the other side concerned about.

Wellington Mayor Andy Foster (file photo)

Andy Foster, Mayor of Wellington, was in attendance and addressed the event. He emphasized that global communication and cooperation are vital for coordinated development. He expressed his belief that the two cities will work together to grasp the opportunities presented by digital technology development to promote innovation, strengthen exchanges and cooperation in terms of smart city construction, and bring about a better future for the urban life in both cities.

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and contains the second largest port in the country. It is also the financial, shipping, industrial, cultural and educational center of New Zealand. In May 2006, Beijing and Wellington forged a friendship by becoming "sister cities". Since then, the two cities have had intense interaction and have carried out pragmatic cooperation in various fields including trade, culture, tourism, education, and sports with remarkable results.

Wellington cityscape (file photo)

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the friendship between Beijing and Wellington. On February 1, during the opening ceremony at one of the events celebrating the 15th anniversary of the two citys' friendship, Mayor Chen Jining made a speech via video. He said that the two cities should work more closely to generate a new comprehensive blueprint for win-win cooperation and further stimulate the potential for collaboration in digital economy, smart city, cultural creativity and other areas. He stated how both cities should advocate for continued development of the sister cities and work towards an even more interactive, pragmatic and mutually beneficial direction. In regards to the aforementioned fields, the two cities are also scheduling other activities in the fourth quarter, i.e. an enterprise symposium, a session for the promotion of "Two Zones" policies, an experience exchange meeting on business environment, a promotional session for Beijing tourism, and a "Reading in Beijing" cultural and reading exhibition by the Capital Library.

The seminar was held online through the cloud live broadcasting platform of China International Fair for Trade in Services.