Co-hosted by Nankai University and Korean Foundation for Advanced Studies, the first Tianjin Forum–Tianjin Forum (2017) will be held from July 7th to 8th, 2017. Tianjin Forum will be held every other year since 2015. Tianjin Forum 2017 has chosen “Innovation and cooperation: urban development and regional governance in the era of Globalization” as the general theme.

In the age of globalization, cities are playing a more and more important role in both a country and the world. They are not only the essence of a country’s development, but also the leader of the world civilization. Cities have concentrated on various problems in the development of society, which also reflects the collision and integration of different civilizations. Urban development is changing countries, and the intercity and cross-country relationship has become a new international relationship. National competitions are competitions between cities, and a country's competitiveness is based on its cities’ competitiveness. Urban development covers population, energy, environment, industry, planning, transportation, housing, culture and other fields. Urban governance needs government management, organization and mobilization, and residents’ participation. Urban development and governance involves intercity relations, international relations and regional governance. In facing the challenge of globalization and the competition between cities, innovation is the key. In order to solve new problems of urban development and governance, achieving inclusive growth which can be shared has become a new trend.

Stemming from Tianjin’s critical position in China and Asia, taking full advantage of multi-disciplines and high-level internationalization of Nankai University, focusing on the demands for the development of China, Korea and other Northeast Asian countries and the integration of the region, the proposed Tianjin Forum will select themes which are of great value in theory and practice, and invite prominent scholars, statesmen, entrepreneurs and other elites in the relevant areas at home and broad, through multi-disciplinary research, to explore relevant issues thoroughly.