(Correspondent: Zhang Zhiqiang) On October 25,  The 20th Anniversary Conference of the Professional Committee of the China Society of Urban Economics and the Annual Conference of 2020 was held in Balitai Campus of Nankai University. Bowei Zhang, Assistant President of Nankai University, Kaizhong Yang, Party Secretary of the Institute of Ecological Civilization, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other officials attended the conference. The opening ceremony of the conference was presided over by Professor Bin Sheng, Dean of School of Economics Nankai University. Professor Binglian Liu, Director of the Institute of Urban and Regional Economic, and Deqi Wang, Deputy Director of the Professional Committee China Society of Urban Economics, presided over the first and second phase keynote speeches respectively. More than 100 experts and scholars from Xiamen University, Southeast University, East China Normal University, Tianjin University, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Jinan University, Southwest University of Finance and Economics, Capital University of Economics and Business and other sister universities, as well as media representatives from Tianjin Channel of People's Daily, Tianjin Daily, China Economic Information Network and other media attended the meeting.

The conference adopts a combination of online and offline methods, with the theme of People-Centered Urbanization and Urban Development in the New Era, aiming to further implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s relevant instructions, and to unite the strength of excellent experts and scholars in urban economics to contribute to China's urban and regional economic development.

In his speech at the opening ceremony, Professor Bowei Zhang pointed out that our university's urban and regional economics discipline, in response to the requirements of the Party Central Committee, the State Council, the Ministry of Education and Nankai University for double first-class discipline construction, strives to contribute to the construction of a strong socialist country with Chinese characteristics, and is an important component of Nankai University's applied economics discipline. On October 2000, the Professional Committee of the China Society of Urban Economics was established at Nankai University in Tianjin, which has grown to be the frontier and the highest-level academic exchange platform of urban economics in China. After 20 years, the annual meeting returns to Nankai University, which is a major event in the field of urban economics for China

Professor Manqi Jiang, Director of the Professional Committee and Professor of the Institute of Urban and Regional Economics of Nankai University, reviewed the development history of the Professional Committee with the words Twenty years of hard-working, never forget the original ethos and set out again, and reiterated that it will further innovate its activities, enhance its influence and cohesion, and make greater contributions to the development of China's urban economic discipline.

The opening ceremony was followed by a fascinating keynote speeches address by a panel of experts and scholars.

Professor Kaizhong Yang put forward the idea of new spatial economics in his keynote speech on Towards Spatial Economics, emphasizing the position and role of innovation location, talent location, local quality and travel cost in spatial economics, and suggesting that innovation location, regional talent, technology and industrial prosperity are derived from local quality, which drive economic agglomeration and development and can provide theoretical support for territorial and spatial planning.

Professor Yali Wang from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics gave a speech on  Disciplinary Development of Chinese Socialist Urban Economics in the New Era - and Review of Professor Huilin Rao 's Thought on Urban Economics, which systematically described the opportunities, challenges and requirements of urban economics in the new era, reviewed the core ideas of Professor Rao Huilin's thought on urban economics, and put forward ideas for the innovative development of urban economics from the construction of theoretical system of urban economics and the training of urban economics talents.

Professor Xiuyan Liu from School of Economic and Management of Southeast University made the report titled Progress and Trends of Urban Economics Models and Empirical Methods, summarizing the international urban economists’ theoretical progress in intracity and intercity models as well as the empirical research methods, pointing out that the domestic scholars of urban economics should be based on context of China, strengthen the standard methods of research and use scientific methods such as instrumental variable method, spatial Difference-in-Differences method, regression discontinuity design and structural estimation to study China's internal urban structure, urban system, urban traffic problems and so on.

Professor Shihe Fu from School of Economics of Xiamen University deliver the speech with the  title “Use Economic Methods to Study Urban and Region, introducing the development of new urban economics, taking the optimal city size and its distribution, regional governance of transboundary pollution for examples, showing how to use economic principles and theories to analyze urban regional problems, and how to follow abundant domestic practices to carry out the corresponding empirical study, and recommending some classical urban economics textbooks.

Chair professor Xueliang Zhang from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics deliver the speech with the title Measure with feet: Do the Urban and Regional Research in China , emphasizing that scholars of urban and regional economics should adjust research ideas, observe and measure in practice, so as to accomplish interdisciplinary fusion among all branches of economics and planning, ecology, geography, history and so on.

Professor Manqi Jiang from Nankai University made the keynote report titled  Progress and Trends of Spatial Research in Urban Economics, She summarize the brief history of urban economics and other disciplines especially the spatial structure literature. The report particularly made comparison among China's production, living and ecology subjects research, and put forward the profound thinking about core problems such as the spatial planning and use control, constraints of spatial planning and market function, spatial research model and several empirical obstacles.

Three sub-forums were set up at the meeting, where experts and scholars had in-depth discussion on three themes: urban space and urban governance, urbanization characteristics and development strategies in the new era, marketization of factors and high-quality urban development.

This annual conference is hosted by the Professional Committee of China Society of Urban Economics, School of Economics of Nankai University and College of Economic and Social Development of Nankai University, organized by Institute of Urban and Regional Economics of Nankai University and co-organized by Tianjin Society of Urban Economy. The annual meeting conducted in-depth discussion on major issues such as the teaching of urban economics in the new era, the frontier development trend of scientific research and the theoretical practice of urbanization and urban development in China. The success of this meeting has further consolidated and enhanced the reputation and influence of urban and regional economics of Nankai University in China, and contributed to the construction and development of the “Double First-Class discipline of Nankai University.