About CAM

China Association of Mayors (CAM)

The China Association of Mayors (the CAM) was established in August 1991 as approved by the State Council.

The CAM is a social organization, with the status of a legal person voluntarily joined by incumbent mayors and vice mayors of all the cities of China as well as chief executives and vice chief executives of districts of the municipalities directly under the Central Government. At present, the CAM has about 6,000 members from 658 cities throughout the country.

Mr. Wan Li serves as Honorary President of the CAM and the post of President of the CAM is held by Mayor of Beijing. The Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction holds the post of Executive President of the CAM. The posts of Vice Presidents of the CAM are held by Mayors of Shanghai, Tianjin, and Chongqing as well as mayors of some provincial capitals. Urumchi and Yiwu are representatives of the cities inhabited by the minority nationalities and county-level cities respectively, so Mayors of Urumchi and Yiwu act as Vice Presidents of the CAM.

The supreme authority of the CAM is the Congress and the executive body is the Council of which the routine work is in the charge of the Secretariat. The Secretariat of the CAM is composed of the General Office, Dept. of International Affairs, Dept. of Domestic Affairs, Dept. of Research, Dept. of Information, Dept. of Edition, Secretariat of the Sub-association of Mayoress, Liaison Office in Guangzhou, and several working organs.

At the Third Congress of the CAM, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao put forward four aims of the CAM, “The link of exchanging cities management experience, the bridge of cities cooperation, the forum for researching urban development problems, and the base for training mayors”.

The purpose of the CAM is “to serve the development of cities and the work of mayors”. The missions of the CAM are:

★ To organize studies on common issues concerning urban development and provide suggestions and consultations for cities and the mayors. The annual China Urban Development Report published by the CAM has certain influence overseas and domestically.

★ To present on behalf of the mayors crucial problems concerning the urban construction and mayors’ work as well as the mayors’ demands and suggestions to the State Council and relevant government departments.

★ To provide various training courses for mayors to help the mayors supplement and update their knowledge and to improve their quality and administration of modernized cities. For instance, the Tsinghua-Yale Senior Seminar of Mayors, Seminar of National Mayoresses, Special Seminar on German Modern Urban Construction and Management, Seminar of China Mayors in Singapore, and Hongkong Industry & Commerce Seminar have been held for many years and produced good results.

★ To promote information and experience exchange among the mayors through training activities, meetings, periodicals and websites to strengthen the lateral ties among the cities. The China Mayors, a periodical of the CAM, have become good media for the communications and studies among the mayors.

★ To carry out exchanges and cooperation with foreign cities and organization to accelerate the opening-up and economic development of the cities. The CAM have established good cooperative relationships with the associations of mayors or local governments of more than 30 countries and regions such as the United States, Germany, Sweden, Philippines, France, Israel, Russia, and the European Union.