Openingsceremonie UCLG World Council en UNIDO Bridge for Cities, 16 oktober 2025

Excellencies,
representatives of national governments,
representatives of the United Nations,
members of the Presidency,
dear colleagues, partners, and friends.

I am happy to be here, opening this World Council, in the beautiful city of Xi’an.

Before I start, I would like to thank the Mayor of Xi’an,
Mr. Ye Niuping, for welcoming us so warmly to his city, and for hosting this important meeting.
I also thank our partners from UNIDO, with whom we proudly share this joint opening through the Bridge for Cities initiative.

It is fitting that our events take place side by side.
Bridge for Cities focuses on innovation, and reminds us that cities and regions are not only places where people live and work.
They are also centres of creativity, resilience, and community.
They are where the world’s biggest challenges are felt — and where solutions are born.

At UCLG, we believe that innovation is powerful when it is inclusive, rooted in local realities, and driven by the needs of people.
Innovation is not only about technology.
It is also about how we govern, plan, listen, and co-create with our citizens.
Urban innovation must never be a privilege.
It must be a tool to advance social justice, sustainability, and equality.

This belief also guides our new joint statement with UNIDO.
Together, we aim to build stronger partnerships between cities, regions, and urban stakeholders worldwide.
Our goal: a more sustainable, inclusive, and locally empowered urban future.
By joining forces, UCLG and UNIDO combine our global reach and bring together the worlds of industrial development and sustainable urban growth.

Local and regional governments have always shown leadership in times of crisis.
Today, we face new frontiers, from artificial intelligence and digital public services to the green transition.
These changes bring new opportunities: to shape cities that are not only smarter, but also more human.

The year 2025 is a turning point.
We are preparing for the World Summit on Social Development, reflecting on the outcomes of the Financing for Development Conference, and already looking beyond 2030.
This is the moment to rethink our priorities, and to transform the multilateral system.
Local and regional governments must be at the centre of that transformation.

At UCLG, we are ready to play our part.
Through our Pact for the Future of Humanity, adopted in Daejeon, and through the Local Social Covenant, we are building a new foundation for governance.
One that is based on care, trust, and shared responsibility.

The Local Social Covenant reminds us that the future must be built with communities, not for them.
It calls on us to protect our common goods, water, health, connectivity, as universal rights.
It reminds us that inclusion, solidarity, and responsibility between generations must guide all we do.

The future of multilateralism must be networked, inclusive, and rooted in territories.
And UCLG will continue to be one of its strongest driving forces.

To our partners, in national governments and international institutions, let me say this clearly:
we will continue to champion multilateralism, and we will continue to drive transformation from the local level upward.

Next year, our World Congress in Tangier will show what this local multilateralism looks like in practice.
It will be a space shaped by and for communities, bringing together all actors to face the challenges of our time,
and to seize the opportunities before us.
A space to design a new generation of universal basic services.

For people.
For our planet.
And with all levels of government.

Thank you.