WeGO Joins Global Urban Leaders at World Cities Summit Mayors Forum in Vienna

 

Vienna, July 4th, 2025 — The World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) joined leading global city representatives and urban innovators at the World Cities Summit Mayors Forum 2025, held in Vienna, Austria, from July 2nd to 4th, 2025. The Forum gathered mayors, city leaders, and partners to discuss sustainable urban development under the theme: “Liveable and Sustainable Cities: Local Solutions, Global Impact.”

WeGO actively participated in high-level discussions, knowledge exchange, and strategic collaboration throughout the programs, highlighting its mission to promote smart and sustainable urban innovation across cities worldwide.

Throughout the Forum, WeGO actively engaged in a series of bilateral meetings to introduce its mission and key initiatives, including the Seoul Smart City Prize and Smart Life Week (SLW). These discussions explored opportunities for mutual cooperation, city-to-city partnerships, encouraging mayors to participate in and extend invitations to one another’s programs. Notable new partnerships included: Clarence Anthony, CEO & Executive Director, National League of Cities (NLC), Juan Mari Aburto, Mayor of Bilbao, János Kendernay, Senior Advisor on City Diplomacy to the Mayor of Budapest, Michael Ludwig, Mayor & Governor of Vienna, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Mayor of Kuala Lumpur, Gordon C. H. Yang, Counselor of Taipei City, Chang Wen-Te, Deputy Mayor of Taipei City, Kate Slevin, Executive Vice President, Regional Plan Association (RPA), Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor of London for Housing and Residential Development, Scott Smith, CEO, Council of Mayors (South East Queensland), Yun Dong-uk, Deputy Mayor of Jeonju, Robert van Asten, Deputy Mayor of The Hague, and Petr Hlaváček, Deputy Mayor of Prague.

Eunbyul Elena Cho, Program Director of WeGO participated in the main session being the Mayors Forum. The session included Mayor of Vienna, Michael Ludwig giving the welcoming remarks. For the session, subthemes included “Delivering Affordable Housing”, “Providing Reliable and Efficient Municipal Services”, “Collaborative Cities in Action”, “Re-thinking Urban Energy Transition”, and “Managing Urban Water for Resilience”. In the Forum’s Session 1, Oh Se-hoon, Mayor of Seoul, President of WeGO, presented Seoul’s long-term lease housing program, “SHift” is an urban solution that enhances liveability through stable and affordable housing options. The session’s focus on affordable housing solutions resonated strongly with WeGO’s commitment to scalable, human-centered smart city practices. 

WeGO participated in the Responsive Cities Session, contributing during a breakout discussion on the topic of “How can cities harness digital tools and innovative methodologies to interact, engage and diversify inputs from citizens?” The discussions emphasized the importance of inclusive digital governance and citizen-centric approaches. The session also featured a presentation by Eider Inunciaga, Councillor of the City of Bilbao, which highlighted Bilbao’s innovations in cybersecurity and inclusion. The presentation included Bilbao’s recognition as one of the 2024 Seoul Smart City Prize winners for its smart city project on “Cybersecurity for Citizens”. Another notable presentation was by Kate Slevin, Executive Vice President, Regional Plan Association (RPA) on congestion pricing in transit in New York City. 

WeGO held a bilateral meeting with the United Nations Office at Vienna (UNOV) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) at the Vienna International Centre. Discussions were held with the Chief of the Co-Financing and Partnership Section, and the Chief of the Laboratory and Scientific Services Branch.

WeGO highlighted its mission on human centered smart city development and introduced its key initiatives, including the Seoul Smart City Prize and upcoming Smart Life Week (SLW), and explored opportunities for cooperation through a training program on drugs and crime prevention. UNODC presented its CHAMPS (Children Amplified Prevention Services) initiative for drug prevention and child protection, as well as the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons (UNVTF) and highlighted potential synergies with WeGO’s initiatives.

WeGO attended the SMU City Dialogues Vienna, co-organized by Singapore Management University (SMU) and UIV Urban Innovation Vienna. The dialogue brought together stakeholders from academia, government, and industry to discuss global challenges like security shifts, aging population, and climate change and how to come up with strategies to strengthen resilience in cities.

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