World Cities Summit

The World Cities Summit is an international conference series on public governance and the sustainable development of cities. It brings together practitioners and policy makers with leading experts in their field to identify innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges facing cities.

The first World Cities Summit, which took place in Singapore from 23 to 25 June 2008, focused on the theme of “Liveable and Vibrant Cities”. The inaugural summit in June 2008 brought together 800 senior delegates. These include leaders, government ministers, city mayors, senior government officials, officials from international organisations, business leaders, academics from the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East, policy makers and the civil society.

Among the issues examined there were the effective governance, urban planning, infrastructural development, environmental sustainability, climate change, quality of life and economic competitiveness.

Speakers who attended include Haruhiko Kuroda, President of the Asian Development Bank; Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme; Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore; Peter Rowe, professor of architecture and urban design at Harvard University; and the mayors of cities such as Melbourne, Yokohama, Bogota and Wellington, among others. There was also an exhibition to promote business links between the public and private sectors.

The summit was organised by Singapore’s Ministry of National Development, the Singapore Civil Service College and the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific are involved as strategic partners. The summit was held in conjunction with the East Asia Summit Conference on Liveable Cities, as well as the Singapore International Water Week 2008, a water industry conference and trade show.

...
Wikipedia