WeGO Leads Discussions on Smart Cities and AI at WSIS+20 High-Level Event and AI for Good Summit in Geneva

 

[Geneva, July 21th, 2025] — The World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) actively participated in the WSIS+20 High-Level Event and AI for Good Summit, held in Geneva, Switzerland, from July 7th to 11th, 2025. Co-hosted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Swiss Confederation, these events served as pivotal platforms for reviewing the progress, achievements, challenges, and opportunities arising from the WSIS follow-up process since the inception of the Geneva Plan of Action in 2003.

The WSIS+20 Forum High-Level and AI for Good events brought together high-ranking officials from national governments, the private sector, civil society, academia, the technical community, and international organizations. The events aimed to promote people-centered, development-oriented digital governance, with a particular focus on harnessing artificial intelligence to address global challenges.

Engagement in High-Level Discussions at WSIS+20 and AI for Good Summit

WeGO’s participation in these events was marked by a series of high-level discussions, knowledge exchanges, and strategic collaborations. During the events, WeGO highlighted its mission to promote smart and sustainable urban innovation across cities worldwide, emphasizing the role of AI and digital technologies in enhancing the quality of life, improving public services, and fostering regional competitiveness.

One of the key highlights of WeGO’s participation was the co-organization of the Smart City Leaders’ Talk on July 8th, 2025, in collaboration with the Global Cities Hub (GCH) and ITU, for the second year in a row. This high-level dialogue permitted a discussion on the main issues of human-centered and climate-resilient smart city development and the necessary framework to initiate global and multistakeholder discussions on this crucial topic. 

The session focused on people-centered approaches to smart cities, with the participation of leaders from international organizations, mayors and representatives of city networks. The Smart City Leaders’ Talk featured prominent speakers, including Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary-General of ITU, Johan Stander, Senior Director of the Services Department at the World Meteorological Organization, Jeong-kee Kim, Secretary General of WeGO, Yousef Al Shawarbeh, Mayor of Amman (Jordan), Nadia Verjee, Executive Director, Expo City Dubai (UAE), Nicholas You, Executive Director, Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation (China) and Anh Thu Duong, Co-director of GCH.

Another important highlight was WeGO’s participation in the AI for Good Summit’s session on “AI & virtual worlds: Building the cities and governments of tomorrow.” on July 9th. This session brought together cities and experts to explore how AI-powered virtual worlds can empower communities and tackle global challenges. 

WeGO’s involvement in the ITU Citiverse was highlighted by the keynote speaker Dr. Okan Geray who acts as Chairman of the Citiverse Initiative. The session featured prominent speakers, including Martin Brynskov, Founding Board Director of the Open & Agile Smart Cities network, Prof. Pilar Orero, Professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Maria Galindo, Secretary for Digital Policies of the Government of Catalonia, Jeong-kee Kim, Secretary General of WeGO, and Lise Nicoud, Deputy Mayor of the City of Évian, and moderated by Kamelia Kemileva, Co-director of GCH.

Speakers highlighted different aspects of using digital tools and AI in their cities, including achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and their expectations towards the development and regulation of a Citiverse. WeGO’s Secretary General Kim spoke about WeGO’s work on human-centered innovation powered by AI and shared examples from member cities including Seoul and Abu Dhabi, also highlighting the Seoul Smart City Prize and what it offers to winning cities.

WeGO Forges New Partnerships and Promotes Key Initiatives

Throughout the summit, WeGO actively participated in various bilateral meetings to introduce its key initiatives, including the Seoul Smart City Prize and Smart Life Week (SLW). These discussions explored opportunities for mutual cooperation and city-to-city partnerships, encouraging stakeholders to participate in and extend invitations to one another’s programs. During these meetings, WeGO, reconnected with partners such as Tomas Lamanauskas, Deputy Secretary-General of ITU, Nicholas You, Executive Director of the Guangzhou Institute for Urban Innovation, who will be joining the High Council of the Seoul Prize this year; and formed new partnerships with Lise Nicoud, Deputy Mayor of Évian and Dr. Okan Geray, Senior Digital City Strategy Advisor, Dubai Digital Authority, (UAE).

Additionally, WeGO had the opportunity to meet with students at their booth, where they promoted the WeGO Champions Program and Global Youth Award. These initiatives sparked significant interest from participating students and young professionals at the event, highlighting the growing enthusiasm for sustainable urban development among the younger generation.

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