"Guizhou and Guiyang have attached great importance to the development of digital governance, big data, artificial intelligence and other aspects, and have achieved remarkable results," Bernadia Irawati, Secretary-General of the United Cities and Local Governments Asia Pacific, said at the Smart City Forum for International Friendship Cities of China International Big Data Industry Expo 2023 held on May 26.

Although it was Bonatia's first time to Guizhou, she learned many new ideas from this year's Expo. "The forum was so informative! My colleagues and I have found that Guiyang is committed to improving people's lives through big data technology.”

Bernadia thought China is an amazing country. “Because in China and Guizhou, big data has integrated into every aspect of lives, from the research and development of 5G technology to its extensive application, from the integration of data resources to innovative application scenarios, from non-inductive payment to digital living, big data has become an important way to deliver tangible benefits to the people."

Bonatia was also impressed by Guizhou’s achievements in smart city construction. She believed that digital technology can help local governments provide better services. “With massive data and information, a good digital governance system will enable decision makers to make the right decisions at the right time.”

"If Guiyang can make it, why can’t other cities? So, we place a high value on learning, as well as information sharing and experience exchanges. "She said that apart from members of the United Cities and Local Governments, participants of many other countries are also inspired by Guizhou’s practice in building smart cities.

Bonatia was one of the witnesses to Guiyang's signing letters of intent for sister cities with Chaiyaphum Province, Thailand and Gunsan City, South Korea, and the signing of a cultural tourism cooperation framework agreement with Tripolis, Greece. She highly praised the cooperation mechanism between Guiyang and other countries.

"We are pleased to see the establishment of such bilateral cooperation." She said that each city has different levels of development, but this was a good model for cities to build bilateral cooperation in related areas.

"We hope to focus on improving people's lives and bring prosperity and stability to society through big data technology." Bonatia hoped that in the future Guiyang could continue to expand its international cooperation mechanisms from bilateral cooperation to multilateral cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and even global cooperation, so that big data and smart city concepts can better promote social progress and global development.