Yesterday, the first United Nations Geospatial Knowledge and Innovation Week 2024 (UN GEONOW 2024) opened in Deqing County of our city. The event, with the theme of "Geospatial Ideas Benefiting Our World", focuses on exchanges and discussions on innovation in geospatial information application scenarios. At the opening ceremony, Navid Hanif, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Liu Guohong, vice minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources of China, and Xu Wenguang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and executive vice governor, delivered speeches and unveiled the International Institute for Geospatial Knowledge and Innovation. Chen Hao, secretary of the Huzhou Municipal Party Committee, delivered a speech. Li Pengde, director of the United Nations Global Geospatial Knowledge and Innovation Center, presided over the opening ceremony. Lian Kunming, deputy secretary of the Huzhou Municipal Party Committee and head of the Huzhou Municipal Government Party Leadership Group, and Zheng Xinyou, vice mayor of Huzhou, participated in relevant activities. Before the meeting, Liu Guohong met with Navid Hanif and exchanged views on strengthening cooperation between China and the UN in the field of geospatial information management.

UN GEONOW 2024, which lasts for four days, will focus on the construction of the United Nations Integrated Geospatial Information Spatial Framework and hold six thematic forums on digital twins and smart cities, smart agriculture and food security, natural resources surveys and territorial spatial governance, clean energy and green development, climate change response and disaster prevention and mitigation, and geographical modeling and geospatial intelligence. The International Symposium on Global Geospatial Knowledge Leadership and the Geospatial Information Innovation and Application Exhibition are held concurrently.

UN GEONOW 2024 is hosted by the United Nations Global Geospatial Knowledge and Innovation Center and co-organized by the Deqing County People's Government and the Moganshan Geospatial Information Laboratory. More than 700 representatives from relevant institutions of the UN, relevant ministries and commissions of China, and relevant institutions of more than 40 countries including the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Finland, Austria, Australia, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Tanzania participated.