Industry leaders, international organizations and top-notch designing schools from all over the world gathered by the Huangpu River side to share their views on design as the 2024 World Design Center Conference (WDCC) kicked off in Shanghai on Friday morning.

Qu Xing, deputy director-general of UNESCO, said in a video message at the opening that the the conference theme this year, Design Reframing Growth, reminded him of "one of the greatest contemporary challenges we face — sustainable urban development".

"It is UNESCO's conviction that creativity is an essential consideration for ensuring sustainable urban development. For two decades, this philosophy has underpinned UNESCO's Creative Cities Network, of which Shanghai has been a valued member since 2010.

"Conferences such as the World Design Cities Conference help to advance global and local understandings of the transformative role design can play in urban development," Qu said.

Gong Zheng, mayor of Shanghai, said at the opening that "we should attach great importance to the comprehensive value and multiple functions of design, as a key driving force for industrial innovation."

Professor Lou Yongqi, deputy president of Tongji University and curator of the main exhibition of WDCC, said in his interpretation for the theme: innovations in the designing and technological sectors have come together and brought out new breakthroughs to impact the world. "Today as human are faced with serious ecology and development crisis, we will have to think out of the box and harness technology with new designs and innovation, to promote new restorative economy and new ways of life."