Three new categories have put this year's Guangzhou International Award for Urban Innovation (Guangzhou Award) under the global spotlight.

"The City of Online Popularity", "the City of Media Attention", and "the City of Public Recommendation" will be selected by random netizens, global media representatives, and all participants of two large urban conferences in Guangzhou, rather than by the award judges.

Tens of thousands of netizens voted on the official website www.guangzhouaward.org every day for "the City of Online Popularity" as Friday, the award day, approached, according to the event organizer.

Hangzhou's public bicycle system in eastern China's Zhejiang province now leads the table of "the City of Online Popularity", which includes a total of 15 contenders, or finalists, for this year's Guangzhou Award.

Jakarta in Indonesia, Eskisehir in Turkey, Dakar in Senegal, and Abu Dhabi in the UAE are also currently ranked among the top five for their prominent urban innovations in the poll.

The winners will be announced at the Guangzhou International Urban Innovation Conference and the 2014 China International Friendship Cities Conference.

Under the theme of "My City, My Dream", the two conferences, running from Thursday to Saturday, are expected to attract more than 600 guests from 56 countries and regions.

More than 100 local companies in Guangzhou which are active in international trade, and plan to go global, will send their representatives to the upcoming event.

"It is a great platform for local enterprises in Guangzhou to seek for substantive cooperative opportunities with foreign partners," Luo Weifeng, deputy mayor of Guangzhou, said at a press conference on Monday. "We will hold a special forum under the theme of how enterprises' innovation can push forward a city's development and promote the business opportunities in Guangzhou to guests from around the world."

zhanghaizhou@chinadaily.com.cn