WeGO Visits São Paulo, the Winner of the Seoul Smart City Prize 2023, Concluding the Seoul Smart City International Cooperation Program 2024, Advancing Accessibility and Urban Innovation
São Paulo, Brazil — The Seoul Smart City International Cooperation Program 2024—one of the key follow-up initiatives offered as a benefit to winners of the Seoul Smart City Prize, a flagship initiative jointly launched by the the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) and its president city, the Seoul Metropolitan Government—has successfully concluded its 2024 project cycle with the City of São Paulo. To mark this milestone, a delegation comprising representatives from WeGO, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and the Seoul Urban Solutions Agency (SUSA) visited São Paulo from April 21–25, 2025 to conduct a series of strategic meetings and a Final Dissemination Seminar, highlighting São Paulo’s strong commitment to advancing inclusive and sustainable urban solutions.
Since WeGO’s founding in 2010, São Paulo has played an active role as a founding member, currently serving as a Vice President City and Executive Committee member, and led the organization by regularly participating in General Assemblies, award programs, and study visits. This partnership is built on a shared vision to advance smart, sustainable, and human-centric cities, with São Paulo consistently demonstrating leadership in the smart city field. This long-standing collaboration and commitment to human-centric smart city development set the stage for the city to be recognized through WeGO’s key initiative, the Seoul Smart City Prize, and to be further selected as the first beneficiary of this related international cooperation program.
Scaling Up Accessibility in São Paulo
In 2023, São Paulo was recognized as the Human-CentriCity winner of the Seoul Smart City Prize for its “Accessible Services Network Map” (ASNM) project. This award celebrates projects that prioritize digital inclusion, bridge the digital divide, and attend to vulnerable groups in society—particularly youth, the elderly, and, as in this case, individuals with disabilities. As a direct result of winning in this category, São Paulo was selected as the first beneficiary city of the 2024 Seoul Smart City International Cooperation Program, receiving technical assistance and support to further scale and strengthen its ASNM initiative.
In this context, the Seoul Smart City International Cooperation Program 2024 supported São Paulo in enhancing its Accessible Service Network Map (ASNM), with a focus on improving public accessibility. The program delivered a comprehensive analysis, database development, and a forward-looking strategic plan to scale up accessibility and public service delivery across the city. Conceived as a legacy of the Seoul Smart City Prize, the program aims to support cities worldwide to scale up winning smart city solutions and foster global cooperation. By working closely with city governments, public agencies, and local innovators, the initiative promotes inclusive, sustainable, and human-centric urban development.
Delegation Visit and Stakeholder Engagement
A delegation comprising representatives from WeGO, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, and the Seoul Urban Solutions Agency (SUSA) visited São Paulo from April 21–25, 2025. During the visit, the delegation met with multiple city departments and key stakeholders, including SMPED (Municipal Secretariat for People with Disabilities), SMUL (Secretariat for Urban Development), Prodam (São Paulo’s public-private IT arm), SMRI (Secretariat for International Relations), and SMIT (Secretariat for Innovation and Technology). These meetings provided valuable insights into São Paulo’s ongoing smart city projects—several of which are being considered as potential candidates for the 2025 edition of the Seoul Smart City Prize.
Strengthening Global Collaboration
WeGO also took the opportunity to hold additional bilateral meetings with São Paulo’s Secretary of International Relations (SMRI), the department serving as WeGO’s focal point in the city. Discussions focused on strengthening São Paulo’s engagement in the WeGO network, promoting the Seoul Smart City Prize and Champions Program, and exploring opportunities for future collaboration, including a potential bid to host the next WeGO regional office.
Additional bilateral meetings were held with Prodam, SP Negócios (the city’s official investment and export promotion agency), and the Innovation Center of the University of São Paulo (USP), to further discuss these entities’ involvement in the Seoul Smart City Prize and learn about past and ongoing projects.
The visit provided a valuable opportunity to strengthen ties with the City of São Paulo, build new partnerships with local stakeholders, and identify innovative smart city projects that can serve as global best practices, while further reinforcing the collaborative spirit between Seoul and São Paulo and paving the way for continued innovation and inclusive urban development.
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