World Cities Summit 2024: WeGO Promotes Seoul Smart City Prize in Singapore
Singapore, June 2nd, 2024 – As the official strategic partner of the event, the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) attended the World Cities Summit 2024 in Singapore from June 2nd to June 4th, 2024 organized by the Center for Liveable Cities (CLC).
The World Cities Summit (WCS) is a global platform where government leaders and industry experts gather to address challenges related to creating livable and sustainable cities, share integrated urban solutions, and forge new partnerships. Since its inception in 2008, WCS has brought together leaders from over 250 cities worldwide, encompassing government, business, international organizations, and academia, offering an ideal platform for WeGO to engage with city leaders from all around the world.
On the first day of the event, WeGO joined the Mayors Forum, which was attended by various mayors and city representatives who expressed their views on how to improve cities’ leadership. During the Forum, the Secretary General of WeGO highlighted WeGO’s flagship initiative addressing digital inclusion, the Seoul Smart City Prize. This initiative aims to showcase successful and innovative smart city projects with tech and human-centric components, enabling benchmarking and fostering peer learning opportunities.
At the Forum, WeGO Secretary-General Ms. Jung Sook Park said, “Before the pandemic, there was a stronger focus on technology-centered city development. However, subsequently, it became evident that a more human-centered approach was necessary, and as such, it is important to share trial and error examples.”
Many mayors showed support and interest in the Seoul Prize, Secretary General Park further commented: “We are thrilled to have the support and interest of such distinguished figures and organizations,” said Ms. Park. “Their commitment to the Seoul Smart City Prize underscores the global importance of fostering smart, sustainable cities.”
Taking the opportunity forward, WeGO exchanged the advancements in smart city initiatives with the key global leaders and organizations gathered at the World Cities Summit. WeGO convened bilaterally with high-profile representatives, including Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Former Executive Director of UN-Habitat; Danela Arsovska, Mayor of Skopje; Daniel Sazonov, Deputy Mayor of Helsinki; and Patrick Hall, Mayor of Canning; and Lauren Sorkin, Executive Director of Resilient Cities Network.
Moreover, additional discussions took place with other cities on site, including WeGO members Baku, Dhaka South, Kaohsiung, Mexico City, Quezon City, Rotterdam as well as other cities such as Bogota, Cape Town, Christchurch, Darwin, Glasgow, Jeonju, Johor Bahru, Keelung, Madinah, Medellin, Nedlands, New Taipei, New York City, Shanghai, Suzhou, Taipei, and Vienna – the host of the next World Cities Summit’s Mayors Forum in 2025.
These leaders and organizations expressed their interest in learning more about the Seoul Smart City Prize, which aims to recognize and reward cities that demonstrate exceptional progress in integrating smart technology and sustainable practices. By bringing together a diverse group of cities and organizations, WeGO hopes to amplify the impact of these initiatives and foster a collaborative approach to urban challenges.
Further discussions with the cities and partners, focused on identifying potential areas of collaboration to further smart city developments and leveraging collective expertise to drive sustainable urban innovation with WeGO. WeGO is dedicated to continuing its role as a catalyst for smart city innovation and global cooperation.
About WeGO
The World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO), is a membership-based international association of local governments, smart tech solution providers, and institutions committed to the transformation of cities into smart sustainable cities through facilitating public-private partnerships (PPP). WeGO was founded by 50 member cities in 2010 as the World e-Governments Organization, hence our acronym. In response to the evolving concept of smart cities, WeGO expanded its vision and mandate at the 7th General Assembly (2017) and its name to the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization. WeGO’s Secretariat is based in Seoul, Korea, and has regional offices in East Asia (Chengdu, China), the Mediterranean (Beyoglu, Turkey), Africa (Abuja, Nigeria), Middle East & North Africa (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), Latin America (Cuenca, Ecuador), and Central Asia (Almaty, Kazakhstan). As the leading platform on smart city development, WeGO’s mission is to share knowledge and good practices in e-Governance; strengthen administrative efficiency and transparency; advance digital capacity; facilitate civic involvement; bridge the digital divide and inequality; and promote cooperation solidarity among cities and local governments around the world.
WeGO serves for its members as their international platform to improve the quality of life, innovate in the delivery of public services, and strengthen regional competitiveness.
Press Contact:
Name: Kakim Danabayev
E-mail: kakim@we-gov.org
Phone: +82-70-4202-9169