WeGO and IMD Publish Case Study Book with Seoul Smart City Prize Winners

 

Seoul, July 01st, 2024 – Starting last year, the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) has partnered with IMD, the world-renowned Swiss institution with leading expertise in executive education, working closely with IMD’s Smart City Observatory to publish the Smart City Index (SCI). The Index, produced annually by the Smart City Observatory is citizen-centric as it combines hard data and survey responses to show the extent to which technology is enabling cities to address the challenges they face to achieve a higher quality of life for their inhabitants. Under the partnership, the Smart City Index 2023 was published last year and this year the Smart City Index 2024 was released in April.

WeGO and IMD have also been partnering to formally recognize efforts in smart city development by awarding the IMD Special Mention as part of the Seoul Smart City Prize. The Seoul Prize is designed to promote an innovative and inclusive smart city model that looks after underprivileged groups in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The IMD Special Mention is awarded to cities that have ranked high in the SCI in the given year and who have also applied to the Seoul Smart City Prize submitting a description of their smart city initiatives.

In line with the partnership on the index and the Seoul Smart City Prize, WeGO and IMD published a special edition of the case study book showcasing select winners of the Seoul Smart City Prize that shared their cases to be published as part of the many benefits of the Seoul Smart City Prize. The cities that contributed to the book were ones that made unique but common efforts towards ensuring their smart city initiatives result in inclusive prosperity through innovation. They also were the ones eager to share their cases and learn from other city governments, prioritizing global exchange of best practices of local governance.

Titled Prosperous and Inclusive Cities: How smart cities can reduce global inequalities by promoting local and inclusive prosperity, the book captures the value and vision that IMD and WeGO together pursue in the endeavors of championing inclusive urbanization. A total of 12 cities, including Seoul, Abu Dhabi, Abuja, Dublin, George Town, Kaohsiung, Konya, Luxembourg, Madrid, Mexico City, Odense, and Wellington, have contributed their insights and smart city initiatives they are pursuing in their respective chapters.

In the book’s opening chapter ‘entitled ‘Inclusive Prosperity’, the President of Smart City Observatory, Bruno Lanvin underlines that ‘Inclusion without prosperity is just a call to redistribute poverty’. He then offers an original model Inclusive Prosperity Model, which should allow cities to escape classic ‘prosperity cycles’, and concludes that ‘by focusing on inclusion, smart cities can open new ways to address persistent global inequalities.’

In the book’s Foreword, WeGO also echoes this emphasis by highlighting that cities “need a fundamental shift in mindset and approach when it comes to designing policies…[as] cities’ efforts in providing their inhabitants with access, literacy, and opportunities to utilize digital technologies will generate more innovation and ideas that lead to prosperity, and are thus deemed to be “smart investments”. The book, with its timeliness, meaningfully addresses how to rethink and redefine what it means to develop smart cities. The book is available online at this link.

The Seoul Smart City Prize is now in its second edition, with the call for projects open from April 1st to July 14th. Similar to the previous year, the finalists of the prize will enjoy various benefits, including an invitation to the Seoul Smart City Prize Ceremony, provision of an exhibition booth to showcase their successful smart city development cases, an invitation to participate in forums to present their awarded projects, and the opportunity to join the Seoul Smart Life Week programs.

Moreover, aside from the access to the Smart City International Cooperation Program, finalists of the Seoul Smart City Prize will have the chance to participate in a comprehensive four-week online and offline training program offered by the Seoul Human Resource Development Center (SHRDC), which includes a series of virtual live lectures and offline training sessions in Seoul, providing valuable insights and knowledge exchange opportunities.

As the application period for the 2nd edition of the Seoul Smart City Prize is currently ongoing, interested cities, corporations, and institutions can apply for the prize by visiting the following link: https://www.seoulsmartcityprize.com/

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