On November 8, Foreign Affairs Office of Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government, on behalf of Fuzhou, attended the opening session of the Congress and Metropolis Board of Directors Meeting 2021. It was the first time for Fuzhou to be invited to the annual meeting of Metropolis Board of Directors since the city was elected as a member of it in November 2020. At the meeting, Fuzhou and other members discussed statutory affairs of Metropolis, approved the main decisions of the 2020 Board of Directors, and reviewed the admission and cancelling of members and the finance and governance issues, as well as taking note of Metropolis Progress Report from January 2021 to April 2021.

In addition, Foreign Affairs Office of Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government took part in some other activities, including Plenary Session of Global Mayors’ Forum, the 5th Guangzhou Award Ceremony and the closing ceremony of the Congress. Through these activities, Fuzhou achieved a better understanding of the experience and insights from representatives of other cities and experts on innovating urban governance, jointly addressing crisis and promoting economic recovery, and reflected with all other participants on how to improve metropolitan governance and people’s welfare under the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.  

Keynote speech by Zhong Nanshan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering at the Plenary Session of Global Mayors’ Forum

The winners of the “Metropolis Through Children’s Eyes” contest organized by Metropolis were also announced at the closing ceremony. Over 140 children from Fuzhou had actively participated in the contest. The drawing created by Huang Luoyao, a student of Fuzhou Qunzhonglu Primary School, stood out from hundreds of entries, and Huang was awarded as the only winner of the 5 - 8 age group.

The winning drawing created by Huang Luoyao from Fuzhou Qunzhonglu Primary School

Some participants at the closing ceremony of the 13th Metropolis World Congress