How the Seoul Smart City Prize is Shaping Inclusive, Smart, and Sustainable Innovation in Cities
Seoul, April 28th, 2025 — As smart city innovation takes center stage in the race for a sustainable future, the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO), one of the world’s longest-standing organizations dedicated to global cooperation among city governments on smart city initiatives while operating with public-private partnership (PPP). WeGO’s Secretariat is based in Seoul and has regional offices in Chengdu, Istanbul-Beyoglu, Abuja, Abu Dhabi, Cuenca, and Almaty. WeGO has opened applications for the 2025 Seoul Smart City Prize. Celebrating excellence in human-centric and technology-driven urban development, the Prize invites cities, corporations, institutions, and individuals worldwide to showcase initiatives that are shaping the cities of tomorrow. Winners will be honored at a prestigious ceremony at Seoul’s COEX Convention and Exhibition Center during Seoul Smart Life Week (SLW), highlighting the best smart city projects for smarter, more inclusive cities.
Marking its third year, the beauty of the Seoul Smart City Prize lies in its emphasis on capturing efforts despite differences in the smart city development stages, infrastructure, and resources each city is faced with. The criteria and indicators of the Seoul Smart City Prize are carefully selected to capture both the current trends in smart city development. Rather than awarding only the most advanced technologies, it recognizes innovative uses of existing solutions. The Prize places special emphasis on digital inclusion, human-centered digital transformations with tech-driven solutions that benefit vulnerable populations and promote equitable, sustainable growth.
President of WeGO and Mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-hoon, stated, “If cities around the world can work together to improve the quality of life for citizens through the Seoul Smart City Prize, I am confident that we will be able to overcome difficult urban problems and achieve mutual growth.”
Among the Seoul Smart City Prize categories, Tech-InnovaCity, Human-CentriCity, Leadership, and Special Mention, the top winners of 2024 were the cities of Abu Dhabi, Addis Ababa, Arlington, Baguio, Cali, and Reykjavik. Over 200 submissions were collected across 58 countries and 123 cities with regional distribution made globally throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America and Oceania.
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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
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