From October 16 to 18, 2025, the 2025 UCLG World Council and the 10th Anniversary of UNIDO's Bridge for Cities Event was successfully held in Xi'an. The event was co-hosted by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), the Xi'an Municipal People's Government, the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Lu Xiangdong, Vice President of the CPAFFC; Fang Hongwei, Secretary of the Xi'an Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC); Ye Niuping, Mayor of Xi'an Municipal People's Government; Jan Van Zanen, President of the UCLG; and Fatou Haidara, Deputy Director General of UNIDO addressed the opening ceremony. More than 500 guests, including heads and representatives from over 160 cities and local government organizations across 57 countries around the world, attended the meeting.
Vice President Lu noted in his remarks that the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, Global Civilization Initiative, and Global Governance Initiative put forward by President Xi Jinping provide Chinese wisdom and solution as the world addresses changes and challenges. In July this year, President Xi called for efforts to build modern cities of the people that are innovative, desirable to live in, beautiful, resilient, culturally advanced, and smart, pointing out the direction for China's urban development while providing important experience for the high-quality development of cities across the world. Chinese and foreign cities should join hands to promote innovative transformation and build green, low-carbon and smart cities; adhere to the people-centered concept to build comfortable, convenient, and livable cities; and ensure both development and security to build safe, reliable and civilized cities. Vice President Lu's speech on behalf of the CPAFFC and member cities on the Chinese mainland included a briefing on the cooperation achievements between the CPAFFC and the UCLG and suggestions for future cooperation, and received active responses from all parties.
On the sidelines of the event, Vice President Lu held separate meetings with Jan Van Zanen, President of the UCLG; Emilia Saiz Carrancedo, Secretary General of the UCLG; Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General of the UCLG's Asia-Pacific Section (UCLG-Aspac); Abdulrahman Al-Asfour, Secretary General of the Arab Towns Organization (ATO); and Suzuki Yasutomo, Governor of Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. They held in-depth discussions on strengthening interaction, promoting urban development, deepening practical cooperation among local governments globally, and promoting people-to-people friendship. The foreign participants to the meetings unanimously expressed their readiness to work with the CPAFFC to promote exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and foreign cities, and continuously add new content to local practical cooperation.
