WeGO Met the Delegation from Monash University at Kookmin University
Seoul, September 26, 2024 – The WeGO Secretariat, in collaboration with Kookmin University, welcomed a delegation of thirty-one Executive MBA students from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The visit was designed to introduce WeGO’s operations around the world and strengthen the students’ understanding of the organization in promoting smart sustainable development.
The WeGO Secretariat, represented by Program Manager, Mr. Lii Inn Tan, delivered a presentation outlining the organization’s vision and initiatives. Several flagship activities of WeGO, including Capacity building projects, Feasibility Studies, the Seoul Smart City Prize, the WeGO Smart Cities Index, and WeGO Smart City Champions, were highlighted.
The presentation was followed by an engaging Q&A session during which WeGO received great interest from the participants about WeGO’s network, the membership process, and best practices for measuring smart sustainable development via the aspects of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG). In responding to enquiries related to ESG, the WeGO Secretariat highlighted its collaboration with Kookmin University on the WeGO Smart Cities Index 2022 Report. This WeGO-branded Smart Cities Index was developed to set a global agenda in the smart cities community by collecting data from WeGO member cities and assessing the smart sustainable development via the aspects of Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG), aiming at enabling cities to assess their development stages, benchmark, and gain inspiration from other cities around the world.
The second part of the program featured a presentation by the Vice-President for Globalization at Kookmin University, Professor Byung-Joon Kim, who assessed the rapid digitalization and explored smart city policy and digital platform government with visions and strategies in Korea. Professor Kim brought focus on how rapid digitalization and urbanization is transforming people’s lives and what Korean cities are implementing to adapt to these changes.
It’s worth noting that the session was also joined in by twelve junior and mid-career diplomats from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Madagascar, Burundi, Kazakhstan, and Liberia as part of the “2024 Capacity Building for Diplomats” by both Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and Kookmin University.
Through this visit, participants gained valuable insights into the principles of smart and sustainable city development. The event not only facilitated knowledge exchange but also fostered international dialogue on smart sustainable urban practices.
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