On September 9, 2021, Professor Yijia Jing of the Institute for Global Public Policy of Fudan University was invited to participate in the capacity development webinar on Advancing SMART Cities and Urban Digital Transformation to achieve Sustainable Development Goals hosted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) in collaboration with Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and Shanghai Big Data Center. He delivered a keynote presentation entitled Digital Transformation and Urban Governance: A Case Study of 'Government Online-Offline Shanghai’”.

The webinar was chaired by Adriana Alberti, Chief of Programme Management and Capacity Building Unit, Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government, UN DESA. Elliott Harris, Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development and Chief Economist, UN DESA, Zongyao Zhu, Deputy Director of the General Office of Shanghai Municipal Government, and Zhen Wang, Vice President of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, delivered the opening remarks respectively.

Professor Yijia Jing's presentation focused on “Government Online-Offline Shanghai”, a tech-driven innovative urban governance system, and its implications for public sector digital transformation and urban governance. He believed that digital transformation is inseparable from comprehensive and coordinated reform measures, strong digital leadership and innovation-friendly public sector culture. Professor Jing also pointed out that government-enterprise relations and government-citizens relations shall be appropriately managed and reshaped, and the challenges and risks in digital transformation shall be foreseen and coped with. After the presentation, he answered the questions raised by the audience.

The webinar was composed of a series of case studies on Shanghai’s digital transformation. It aimed to explore recent experiences in building SMART cities and exploring their contributions to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through expert presentations, showcasing of best practices and sharing of practical steps in building SMART cities. There were six speakers and more than 200 participants including government officials responsible for digital transformation from developing countries, as well as experts and professionals from private sector, civil society, and academia.