Rome mayor shares view on creative city, inspired by Beijing summit

More than a month after its launch, the third UNESCO Creative Cities Beijing Summit continues to foster international discussion on innovation.

Among worldwide leaders to participate in the dialogue is Virginia Raggi, mayor of Rome, Italy.

"Rome is becoming an increasingly digital and smart city," Raggi told China Daily. "We hope to advance sustainable social and economic growth, paying particular attention to local communities and suburbs."

"Rome is a 1,000-year-old city, but I am convinced that the match of history and innovation will bring Rome into the future, making it an increasingly accessible city."

The mayor also shared its view on the definition and superiority of a creative city, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Art and culture have been a significant boost for restarting the city after the lockdown caused by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Raggi said.

Rome was the first city in Europe to let operas reopen, the mayor said. The city has tried to meet anti-pandemic requirements and people's need to restart life and culture.

The city chose a new location for its operas, the Circus Maximus, which is a significantly broader space than venues used in previous years.

Rome is also the city of cinema, and film production has also recently restarted.

"We have received about 600 requests to shoot films in the city, more than last year,” Raggi said. “The city is returning to life thanks to art and culture, always safeguarding safety and accessibility."

"Covid-19 posed us an unexpected and difficult challenge, but Rome and the Romans reacted well. Our city proved resilient and organized many different initiatives, even in the lockdown period, accelerating not only technological but also cultural evolutions," the mayor said.

"Rome has restarted — it is reinventing itself, but the virus has not been defeated and we must therefore live with the rules to protect public health. The challenge is to gradually return to a new normal, guaranteeing the safety of all but also the recovery of the economy and work."

The third UNESCO Creative Cities Beijing Summit, which ran from Sept 17 to 18, featured the slogan "creativity empowers cities, technology creates the future".

Given the outbreak of COVID-19, the third Beijing Summit took the development of cities under the post-epidemic era as a starting point, It discussed how to use new technologies to empower culture and creativity, and design more resilient and optimized urban management measures, models and ideas.

The summit brought together mayors, experts, scholars and businesses to share and illustrate the power of creativity and innovation in building the cities of tomorrow.

Since its nomination into UNESCO's Creative Cities Network in the category of design in 2012, Beijing has hosted three UNESCO Creative Cities summits. The first two were held in 2013 and 2016.