Mayors and City Leaders Will Discuss How to Build a High Trust City

The 10th World Cities Summit (WCS) Mayors Forum and 6th Young Leaders Symposium will be held in Medellín, Colombia, from 10 to 12 July 2019. The city of Medellín was named the 2016 Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize Laureate and will host the event. The event will bring together over 200 participants from around the world, including mayors, city leaders, and senior leaders from the industry and international organisations, with representatives from all regions of the world.

Mr Lawrence Wong, Minister for National Development and Second Minister for Finance, Singapore will chair the Forum, and will deliver the opening and closing addresses on 11 and 12 July 2019. The host city will be represented by Mr Federico Gutiérrez, Mayor of Medellín City.


Liveable and Sustainable Cities: Building a High Trust City

Themed "Liveable and Sustainable Cities: Building a High Trust City", the discussions at the WCS Mayors Forum and WCS Young Leaders Symposium will explore the latest innovations and good practices in city governance that help build confidence in cities’ societies and institutions, and how cities should plan for economic and environmental security in an age of unpredictable economic fluctuations and extreme weather events.

Notable attendees will include the Governor of Jakarta Anies Baswedan, Deputy Minister of Moscow City Government Ilya Kuzmin, Chairman of Muscat Municipality Mohsen Bin Mohammed Al-Sheikh and Mayor of Seoul Park Won-soon. Interactive sessions amongst participants will provide opportunities for in-depth discussions on these issues. The synopses of the Mayors Forum sessions are provided in Annex A.


Programme Highlights

Participants will go on site visits to Commune 10 and Commune 13 to witness the urban transformation in Medellín, which was made possible by high levels of trust between citizens and the government, residents’ empowerment through community action and strengthened trust through public spaces. Key initiatives that have been implemented as part of Medellín’s urban transformation are provided in Annex B.

There will also be several exhibitions for participants to visit at the Plaza Mayor. The Singapore-Medellín Exhibition will showcase projects from both Singapore and Medellín, which focus on the central theme of building trust. The efforts of both cities will be showcased through an integrated exhibition which provides the visitor an immersive walk-through experience. The City Portraits – a digital exhibition profiling the mayors and city leaders and their efforts in building greater trust in their cities – will also be showcased.

A community art jamming project, led by Singaporean artist Sun Yu-Li, in partnership with the local artist community Deúniti, will take place from 7 to 11 July. The mayors and city leaders, together with local community groups, will also have an opportunity to participate in this art jamming. The co-created art pieces will be installed at public spaces in Medellín after the event.

Five publications by the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) will also be launched at the event and the full list can be found in Annex C. For more details on the programme and speaker line-up, please visit www.worldcitiessummit.com.sg/event-guide/wcs-mayors-forum.


About the World Cities Summit

The biennial World Cities Summit (WCS) is an exclusive platform for government leaders and industry experts to address liveable and sustainable city challenges, share integrated urban solutions and forge new partnerships. Jointly organised by Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC) and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), key highlights of the Summit include the WCS Mayors Forum, the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize and the WCS Young Leaders Symposium.

The next edition of the World Cities Summit will be held from 5–9 July 2020 in Singapore, with Keppel Corporation as the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize sponsor, Dassault Systèmes, OUE and ST Engineering as Patron sponsors, Envision as Platinum Sponsor, and Temasek Foundation as the WCS Young Leaders Partner. For more information, visit www.worldcitiessummit.com.sg.


WCS Mayors Forum & WCS Young Leaders Symposium

The WCS Mayors Forum is an exclusive by-invitation-only, global platform for mayors and city leaders to discuss pressing urban challenges and share best practices. Since its inception in 2010, the annual Forum has grown into a calendar highlight for global mayors and city leaders. The WCS Young Leaders Symposium brings together change makers and leaders from diverse sectors who are shaping the global urban agenda. The Mayors Forum and Young Leaders Symposium are key highlights of the biennial World Cities Summit held in Singapore and is jointly organised by Singapore’s CLC and URA.


About the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize

Inaugurated in 2010 and named after Singapore’s first Prime Minister, the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize is a biennial international award that honours outstanding achievements and contributions to the creation of liveable and sustainable urban communities around the world. The lecture and forum discussions will focus on four key pillars of every city’s success: liveability, vibrancy, sustainability and quality of life. Past prize Laureates include Bilbao City Hall, Spain (2010), New York City, United States of America (2012), Suzhou City, China (2014), Medellín, Colombia (2016) and Seoul, South Korea (2018). For more information, visit www.leekuanyewworldcityprize.com.sg.


2016 Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize Laureate: Medellín, Colombia

For its sustained efforts in tackling the city’s socio-economic challenges, the city of Medellín was named the 2016 Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize Laureate. Medellín’s successful transformation from a notoriously violent city into one that is upheld as a model for urban innovation within a span of just two decades was possible through the government’s investments in a multi-modal public transport and creating public spaces. Public spaces allow relationships based on empathy through communication to be built. It is where the seed of trust is planted, at the local level.


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