Shanghai to hold global design event WDCC

The World Design Cities Conference (WDCC) 2022 will be held in Shanghai on September 15-18, as the city looks to develop into a global design hub, local officials announced on Tuesday.

During the WDCC, Shanghai will hold an exhibition in downtown Huangpu District. The show will cover 20,000 square meters with 110 brand exhibitors and more than 300 product lines, 20 percent of them overseas brands.

Around 50-plus forums will be held during the WDCC, covering varied topics as well as innovations in industrial, architecture, fashion, digital and service design.

French designer Philippe Patrick Starck; Wu Guanghui, the chief designer of China's home-made C919 aircraft; and Richard Yu, Huawei's head of consumer business, have confirmed their participation at the conference.

Shanghai has ambitious plans to build itself into a global design hub with a rapidly growing design industry.

The annual gross domestic product growth of Shanghai's design industry is more than 10 percent, much higher than the city's total GDP growth, Wu Jincheng, director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Informatization, told a conference on Tuesday.

As a part of the WDCC, local residents are welcome to attend an online voting for the "Shanghai Design 100," with works on haute couture, electric cars, and robots among the options, officials said.