Cities serve as the spaces of civilizational development and the carriers of modernization. As global urbanization accelerates, it is estimated that by 2050, nearly 70 percent of the world's population will reside in urban areas. Challenges such as population expansion, resource scarcity, and complexities in governance are becoming increasingly prominent. Improving urban governance and livability has thus become the shared task for cities worldwide. The rapid evolution of digital and intelligent technologies offers new pathways toward inclusive, green, and sustainable urban development, contributing to the profound transformations in urban governance. Faced with unprecedented opportunities and challenges, it is the shared mission of cities around the globe to deepen digital and intelligent cooperation and strengthen governance dialogue, so as to jointly tackle challenges and advance the progress of human civilization.
Beijing, famous for its historical and cultural heritage, is a dynamic, modern international metropolis of over 21 million permanent residents in an area of more than 16,000 square kilometers. To address urban governance challenges, since 2019, Beijing has launched the "Swift Response to Public Complaints" reform initiative, with its 12345 citizen service hotline as the primary channel to receive, promptly respond to, and efficiently handle public concerns and problems raised by both citizens and enterprises. At the same time, it has integrated digital and intelligent technologies into the entire workflow of urban governance to enhance the capacity for mining and analyzing public livelihood data, and proactively addressed recurring, common, and challenging issues with targeted governance measures. Over the past seven years, the platform has received approximately 200 million public requests, inquiries and complaints, with both the resolution rate and the satisfaction rate exceeding 97 percent. A complete and effective closed-loop management system for public services has been established. The city has explored and blazed a new trail in modernizing urban governance by using citizens' requests to drive improvements.
To promote global exchanges and mutual learning in urban governance, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the China Media Group, the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, and the People's Government of Beijing Municipality jointly launched the Beijing Forum on Swift Response to Public Complaints. Under the permanent theme "People's City, Better Future", the forum has been successfully held three times since its debut in 2021.
The 2024 edition, themed "Modernizing for People-Centered Urban Governance", welcomed over 3,100 guests, including more than 170 international participants from 40 countries. Multiple achievements were released. The documentary film "Hotline Beijing", which premiered during the event, was released nationwide in China and screened in international cities including New York, Los Angeles, and Saint Petersburg. It has won several awards, including the Golden Rooster Award for Best Documentary, the Golden Panda Award for International Communication of Chinese Stories, and the Best Documentary of the Year award at the Chinese American Film Festival.
The forum is held every two years. The 2026 edition is tentatively scheduled to take place in Beijing from October 12 to 13, under the annual theme "Digital Intelligence Era and People's City". The event will include an opening ceremony, a main forum, parallel forums and salons, and a closing ceremony. Several publications will be released, including a compilation of research papers on Swift Response to Public Complaints in Beijing, an English-language monograph on the reform, an English-language special publication on the reform, an evaluation report on worldwide city hotline services and governance effectiveness, an evaluation report on China's city hotline services and governance effectiveness, and cases of global urban governance innovation. Additionally, a screening will be held for a documentary on the "Swift Response to Public Complaints" reform.
We sincerely invite representatives from academic institutions and government agencies worldwide to join us at the event. Let us work together to explore the directions and pathways for modernizing urban governance through digital intelligence and create a brighter future for human urban civilization.