Mayors and city officials from around the world gathered Tuesday in Ningbo, a major port city in east China's Zhejiang Province, for the 2026 Global Mayors Dialogue, exploring how greater openness and connectivity can translate into concrete opportunities for urban development and tangible deals.
The four-day event, which runs through Thursday, is part of an international series of exchange forums where mayors, diplomats and heads of international organizations share ideas on how cities can grow sustainably, preserve their cultural heritage, expand trade and stay connected to the wider world.
The spirit of exchange was on full display during Tuesday's keynote dialogues, where participants compared notes on keeping public services affordable and balancing municipal budgets, challenges that cities everywhere confront regardless of size or wealth.
Wayne Brown, the mayor of Auckland in New Zealand, said studying how other cities manage those pressures has been central to his own city's progress.
"All cities face the difficulties of providing services at the cost that (makes) people feel happy, so it's good to see how other ones do it successfully. Ningbo is a successful city and I think Auckland is too now and it comes from understanding the others and learning the lessons and striving to make ends meet," Brown said.
The search for workable solutions extended beyond municipal finances to greener and smarter forms of urban management. Lee Fu Haw, a councilor with the Royal Klang City Council in Malaysia, said digital tools and paperless administration were among the areas where cities stand to gain from closer cooperation.
"Today we are going to discuss the green corridor. We try to have a better way to cooperate together, including digital AI and all the paperless [systems], and including the AI controlling," he said.
For Ahmed Wazeery, secretary general of Egypt's Suez Governorate, the dialogue offered a chance to build ties with Ningbo in industry and education.
"For me, Egypt, we want to cooperate with Ningbo. We look forward to cooperating in industries and imports, and education," said Wazeery.
Organizers had promised that the dialogue would produce concrete results, and by the close of Tuesday's sessions the delegates delivered on that pledge. In all, 14 project agreements were signed and the Ningbo Consensus on Collaborative Development was released, a joint declaration committing the participating cities to lasting collaboration.
Global city leaders meet in China's Ningbo to turn openness, connectivity into shared opportunities
