Six former State leaders among those to attend meeting on understanding China

The Understanding China Conference 2020 gets underway on Friday in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, where global leaders will exchange in-depth insights into China's development.

Statesmen, strategists, scholars and entrepreneurs from about 20 countries and regions including six former State leaders from Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Mexico, Pakistan and the United Kingdom will gather both online and offline during the three-day event to share their perspectives about China's political, academic and business issues.

The city's Nanshan Wetland Park has an untouched natural environment. CHINA DAILY

The opening ceremony, scheduled for Friday afternoon, will be followed by 10 parallel seminars, a series of special dialogues and supplementary activities on Saturday and Sunday.

The parallel seminars will share the latest findings in topics including new driving forces of China's economy, China's financial challenges and opportunities, and opportunities for multinational companies in China.

Topics like urban renewal and governance, economic globalization and regionalization, technological innovation and international cooperation, reform of the administrative system, cross-border culture, and healthcare education amid COVID-19 will be discussed.

Deng Hong, deputy director of the Information Office of the Guangdong provincial government, said the conference will build a platform for in-depth communication among the world's most influential figures.

"It will tell stories about China's journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-around way and demonstrate the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind," he noted.

Tourists take a boat tour of Lychee Bay in Guangzhou. CHINA DAILY

Zhu Xiaoyi, deputy director of the publicity department of the Guangzhou committee of the Communist Party of China, said a series of supplementary activities are planned to take place during the event. They include a global choice food collection, theatrical performances, a poverty alleviation photo show, a cultural and tourism industry investment and financing matchmaking conference and field inspections.

Experts said the conference will be inspiring to Guangzhou in this old city's further initiatives to gain new vitality; vice versa, the event, together with the supplementary activities, will become an important platform for the city to share its wisdom of and solutions to urban facelift and governance, business environment improvement, as well as social, economic and cultural developments.

In the past two years, Guangzhou has made great efforts to revitalize its old urban areas, achieving strengthened urban functions, enriching city culture, cultivating a modern service industry and improving the business environment; and they have paid well off, according to the Guangzhou city government.

A work report recently submitted by the city's development and reform commission to the city's people's congress shows that in 2019, the city's GDP reached 2.36 trillion yuan ($360 billion), an increase of 6.8 percent year-on-year.

The venue for the China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou features a modern, stylish design. CHINA DAILY

In the first three-quarters of 2020, its GDP grew by 1 percent, which is 3.7 percentage points higher than the first half of the year.

The report indicates that Guangzhou, as an international hub, has significantly enhanced its functions of transportation, information exchanges and cultural communication.

At present, the third-phase project of the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is under construction. A passenger throughput of 120 million is forecast to be realized after its completion.

The city has also cultivated local cultural brands, promoted the integration of culture, commerce and tourism, and improved educational and healthcare services.

That apart, Guangzhou has made great efforts to accelerate science and technology innovation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, building up more incubation platforms and deepening the reform of the innovation system and talent introduction and jointly promoting the development of Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macao Science and Technology Innovation Corridor with the other three Bay Area cities. This year's Global Innovation Index released in September by the World Intellectual Property Organization listed Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong as a cluster for the first time and ranked the cluster No. 2 worldwide in innovation index.

Ships dock at a port in Guangzhou. CHINA DAILY

The city has also played its role well in the co-promotion of the Bay Area development in terms of infrastructure connectivity, industrial coordination as well as favorable treatments for Hong Kong or Macao citizens who live or work in Guangzhou.

Guangzhou's support to Shenzhen for the latter to become a demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics and its leadership in Guangdong's high-quality regional coordination in the past two years has also gained extensive "likes" in the province and even in China.