On 5 October 2020, the ‘Bridge for Cities 2020’ was successfully held online. This was the fifth ‘bridge for cities’ event jointly organized by FCSSC and UNIDO. The event named ‘Driving the Decade of Action: COVID-19 and the future of Cities’ focused on green, social and technological innovations to respond and recover from the COVID-19 crisis. 

In his opening remarks, the head of the FCSSC, emphasized that “in the post-pandemic era, urban development should be resilient. Resilient cities should have both the ability to deal with the crisis, and the ability to recover from the crisis.” 

The event was enriched by two rounds of Mayors’ Roundtable discussions, a series of workshops and exhibition booths organized by partner cities, international organizations, and innovative start-ups, showcasing ground-breaking solutions for the future of smart cities’ development. Mayors from Almaty, Antananarivo, Dortmund, Manama, Shenzhen, Vienna, Zamboanga and Zhengzhou, Amman, Budapest, Colombo, Damietta, Manizales, Sarajevo, Sihanoukville and so on discussed the challenges and opportunities for urban recovery and development in the post-pandemic era. The event attracted more than 500 attendees around the world.