Beijing's Chaoyang District Government yesterday played host to the second forum on building a world city with Chinese characteristics.

The one-day event brought together 400 leaders of governments, businesses and civil society groups from around the world, to discuss how Beijing can retain its Chinese characteristics while developing into a world city.

Beijing's local version of China's 12th Five-year Plan sets the goal of developing the city into "a capital of international events, a capital of headquarters of global high-end enterprises, a capital of global talent, a capital of advanced socialist culture with Chinese characteristics, and a capital of harmony and livability."

An overall cultural strategy

Chen Zhe, director general of the Institute of Cultural Industry said Beijing needs to marshal its cultural resources.

"Every district of Beijing is building its own cultural characteristics. But to develop into a world city with Chinese characteristics, Beijing should map out an overall strategy under which each district retains its own unique urban culture."

"For instance, Chaoyang District has the 798 art zone and 751D-park. These clusters have inherited traditional Chinese culture and combined it with contemporary Chinese cultural elements. However, these creative industry parks are scattered around with no overall plan. The government should guide the development of the existing clusters and coordinate them to exert a cumulative effect. "

Tolerance and diversity

Lim Haw-Kuang, chairman of Shell Group China, emphasized the need to recognize and respect cultural diversity.

"A world city should be inclusive and diverse. People from different countries have different cultural backgrounds. They do things differently. Only when we have developed tolerance can Beijing become a world city that welcomes people from different countries. In business, toleration is very important, because it allows people from different countries, of different races and skin colors to work together. It helps us understand each other."

"Shell Group does business in more than one hundred countries. The reason we chose Beijing as the headquarters of our group is that over the past four years our business in China expanded rapidly. We have to deal with people from many countries in the Asia Pacific region. It has proved to be a wise choice. Building Beijing as a world city is very important for Shell Group as it will help us recruit talent."

Communication and cooperation

Ada Jen, director general of the Government Affairs Department of the International School of Beijing-Shunyi, said Beijing's rich, multi-layered culture would be a major factor in helping to create a world city.

"The Beijing municipal government often mentions building Beijing into a livable city. I think that goal has been achieved already. I have lived in Beijing for nearly 24 years and I am still very fond of this city. The city has about 3000 years of history. Each building tells its own story," Jen said.

"In an era of globalization, we need to integrate cultural resources and strengthen international exchanges and cooperation. East and West should learn from each other. During the process of forging a world city, we should preserve our own culture and protect traditions and history.

"I work in the field of education. I feel very lucky that I work in an international environment which holds high the value of diversity. In order to make Beijing into a world city, we should determine a series of projects to help give foreigners a better life experience in Beijing. In addition, we should encourage Beijing residents to experience foreign cultures, so that they can become better world citizens in the future."