Shenzhen, which has set itself up to become China's innovation centre, has won a strong endorsement from the United Nations after it was given the title of 'Unesco City of Design' yesterday - making it the only non-Japanese city in Asia to carry the title.
Shenzhen now joins Berlin, Montreal, Buenos Aires, Nagoya and Kobe in the exclusive club after passing a rigorous assessment by experts from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the city government announced yesterday.
Cities are selected for their creativity, innovation and quirkiness. In August 2005, Buenos Aires became the first Unesco City of Design. The other four cities were named over the next few years, before Shenzhen joined their ranks.
To qualify, each had to meet basic requirements laid out by Unesco on cultural diversity and creativity.
Hailing the achievement as 'a great honour for Shenzhen as well as for China', Mayor Xu Zongheng pledged that Shenzhen would continue to invest heavily in innovation and create a conductive environmental to attract fresh design talents and investments.
'The experts from Unesco are impressed by our potential and our clear targets. We have a thriving design industry and we are setting it as a strategic goal' for Shenzhen to become China's innovation centre, he said.