On May 19, 2021, the UK-China Expert Exchange Forum on the pilot project for sustainable development of small and medium cities hosted by the SAC/TC567 and undertaken by the People’s Government of Qujiang District, Quzhou City, was held in the International Future Community of Lianhua Village, Qujiang District, with both online and offline participation. The conference was presided over by Dr. Yang Feng, the project leader, from the Department of Public Security Standardization Research, China National Institute of Standardization (CNIS). Mr. Sun Wei, Director of the Social Management and Public Service Standards Division of the Standards and Technology Management Department of the SAC; Mr. Xu Huiwen, Deputy Secretary of the Qujiang District Committee and District Mayor, and Mr. Ash Green, the programme manager of China Business Environment Programme – Standards Strand (BEP-S) from British Embassy China delivered speeches for the conference successively. The UK expert Mr. Geoff Visser introduced the project on behalf of the expert group. A total of more than 40 people including leaders from Zhejiang Province, Quzhou City and Qujiang District Administration for Market Regulation, representatives of pilot cities and relevant experts from domestic technical support organizations attended the meeting.
Mr. Hu Zhibin, Deputy District Governor of Quzhou District, Ms. Wu Yanhong, Deputy Director of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city Legal Affairs Bureau, Mr. Qiao Xu, the representative appointed by Guangzhou Huangpu District, and Mr. Xiang Shenglin, and the representative appointed by Guangzhou University Town reported the progress and phase results of the pilot cities during the conference. Under the guidance of the UK and Chinese experts, the four pilot cities have completed the formulation of pilot plans, interpretation and promotion of international standards, clarification of implementation plans, division of responsibilities, preliminary baseline research, indicator data collection and analysis, and self-assessments against benchmarks. In combination with their respective urban characteristics and industrial advantages, they put forward goals and measures for continuous improvement using smart technology and means of urban governance. Since then, experts from China and the UK have conducted interactive exchanges on the content of the report and the next steps.
Director Xing Liqiang fully affirmed the implementation plan and progress results of the pilot project in the conference summary and thanked the experts from the Chinese and British standardization institutions and the organizers for their strong support of this conference. He said that the four pilot cities should be used as typical examples to promote the experience of participating in international standardization work to small and medium-sized cities across the country, so as to attract more domestic cities to join the international standard pilot program for urban sustainable development. He also hopes that standard verification will give birth to more international standards led by China and promoted the management experience and models of sustainable urban development in China to the world through the international common language - standards.
The pilot project of international standards for the sustainable development of small and medium-sized cities is an international cooperation project with the support of the SAC and the British Embassy China, and the participation of experts from CNIS and the British Standards Institute. It was launched in 2019 and will be checked and accepted until the end of 2021. The international standards selected and verified by the pilot cities are the series of standards for sustainable development of cities and communities formulated by ISO/TC 268, including ISO 37101, ISO 37104, ISO 3712X standard family, etc. Some of the international standards are formulated by our side. The project results will provide more Chinese cases and data support for the ISO/TC 268 international standard, build a broader platform for deepening and expanding China-UK standardization cooperation, and lay a foundation for further cooperation in proposing new international standards.
This article was published by the China National Institute of Standardization and the original article can be found here.
