SPEECH BY MR CHEE HONG TAT,

MINISTER FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT,

FOR THE OPENING ADDRESS

AT THE WORLD CITIES SUMMIT 2026 MAYORS FORUM,

ON 14 JUNE 2026,

SUNTEC CONVENTION & EXHIBITION CENTRE

Excellencies
Mayors
Ladies and Gentlemen

Opening

1.     Good afternoon and a warm welcome to Singapore and the 15th World Cities Summit Mayors Forum.

1. We are delighted to welcome representatives from London - the 2026 Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize Laureate, and from the five Special Mention cities - Antwerp, Budapest, Guangzhou, Taipei, and Tianjin.
2. We look forward to learning from your experiences and to the rich exchange of ideas over the next few days.

ACT Now!

2.      Last year in Vienna, Austria, we reflected on how “Local Solutions” can create “Global Impact”. Our discussions reaffirmed an important point: although every city operates within its own unique history, geography and constraints, the issues we face are increasingly shared and interconnected.

3.      This year’s Forum builds on that momentum. Our conversations should go beyond whether cities need to transform. We know they need to. Our discussions should extend to how we can accelerate the transformation and ensure that it remains inclusive, resilient and sustainable for our people, which is set out in this year’s theme, "ACT Now! Accelerate, Collaborate, Transform."

4.      We meet at a time of increasing global uncertainty.

1. Geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, climate shocks, and economic volatility are reshaping the environment in which our cities operate.
2. At the local level, challenges from housing affordability to climate change are growing in scale and urgency.
3. While these are not new challenges, the pace at which we must respond to them is accelerating.

5.      "ACT Now" is therefore an imperative for all cities - to accelerate the effective implementation of practical solutions, to collaborate across sectors, disciplines and borders, and to share openly what has worked well, and what has not worked well. In doing so, we shorten our learning curves and build stronger trust and partnership between cities in different parts of the world.

6.      Over the next few hours, our discussions will be organised around four themes that reflect our shared urban challenges: how we deliver affordable housing, how we manage urban water for resilience, how we re-think urban energy transition, and how we provide reliable and efficient municipal services.

Strengthening Housing Resilience and Social Stability

7.      Let me begin with housing, which is one of the most pressing concerns for cities globally. In Singapore, our public housing programme is the cornerstone of our social compact.

1. Home ownership rate among residents is more than 90%, among the highest in the world.
2. We achieve this outcome by investing heavily in public housing. 8 in 10 Singaporeans live in public housing flats built by the Housing and Development Board, which is a statutory board under my Ministry.

8.      At last year’s Mayors Forum hosted in Vienna, I shared how Singapore responded to housing pressures arising from the COVID-19 pandemic by increasing supply and strengthening affordability measures. Since then, I am glad to report that we have stabilised our housing market with a continued robust supply of housing, while we continue to plan for future demand arising from longer-term demographic changes and social needs.

9.      But homeownership is not only about constructing more homes and keeping them affordable.

1. It is also about building communities, for people across all walks of life to live well together, for young families to sink roots, and for the elderly to age well and with dignity in familiar surroundings.
2. Our Age Well Singapore programme is one such effort, where we are upgrading homes and estates to be more senior-friendly and pairing these physical environment improvements with enhancements in social and care services.

Managing Urban Water for Resilience

10.      Let me now move to the next topic, which is “Managing Urban Water for Resilience”. Climate adaptation and water resilience are also key priorities for Singapore and for many cities around the world.

1. For Singapore, as a low-lying island city-state, we are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels and more intense rainfall.
2. We also do not have large natural sources of fresh clean water within our borders to meet our long-term demand for water.

11.      This is why our approach to water resilience is anchored on “Four National Taps” - local catchment water, imported water, NEWater, which is recycled wastewater, and desalinated water. Together, these four taps have strengthened the reliability and sustainability of our water supply system over the years.

12.      We have also strengthened our water resilience in Singapore through long-term integrated planning.

1. The Long Island project, which I mentioned last year, is one such example.
2. Long Island – this is different from the Long Island in the US – this is the Singapore version of Long Island, so Long Island will help protect Singapore’s eastern coastline and our Central Business District against sea level rise while strengthening flood resilience and water security through the creation of a new reservoir. It also creates new land for housing, recreation and other uses.
3. It illustrates how a single initiative can serve multiple goals simultaneously - coastal protection, flood resilience, water security and new opportunities for housing and recreation.
4. And that resilience infrastructure can be actively integrated with future urban redevelopment.

13.      As climate risks continue to intensify, cities must continue to evolve their approaches towards urban water management and flood resilience.

1. One way is through the use of nature-based solutions, such as the waterways that we are using, to conserve and restore mangroves, and the building of green roofs and corridors. These are all different ways in which we can help to manage stormwater and to reduce flood risk.
2. These solutions complement traditional engineering infrastructure and they reflect a broader shift towards incorporating resilience as a core element of how we plan and design our cities.
3. This approach not only addresses climate risks - it also supports biodiversity, reduces urban heat, and creates healthier, greener and more sustainable places for our people to live, work and play.

Re-thinking Urban Energy Transition

14.      The third topic is “Re-thinking Urban Energy Transition”. Ongoing global challenges - including conflicts in the Middle East and broader energy market disruptions - have shown us how vulnerable cities and countries can be to energy supply shocks.

15.      Our energy transition journey in Singapore is about balancing three objectives simultaneously - sustainability, energy security and affordability.

1. Achieving this requires sustained investment across multiple pathways - expanding renewables, improving energy efficiency, investing in low-carbon research, and pursuing greater regional cooperation to strengthen our energy connectivity and resilience.

16.      The urban energy transition will require long-term planning, innovation and partnership. It will also require difficult trade-offs, difficult choices that we need to make. But we cannot ignore the problem, because we know the costs of inaction will be far greater than the costs of transition, especially for our future generations.

Providing Reliable and Efficient Municipal Services

17.      Last but not least, on reliable and efficient municipal services.

1. In Vienna, I spoke about how Singapore had established our Municipal Services Office, to strengthen coordination across agencies and improve municipal services.
2. As cities become more complex, the need for integrated and responsive municipal governance has become even more important.

18.      Effective municipal services depend on strong partnerships between governments, communities and residents.

1. We encourage our residents to play an active role to improve their neighbourhoods and co-create solutions together with the government agencies and businesses to tackle local challenges.
2. Beyond resolving issues, these partnerships also help build trust, foster a greater sense of ownership, and create communities where residents feel connected to both their neighbourhoods and with one another.

19.      To support these efforts, we have continued to strengthen whole-of-government coordination and responses, as well as to invest in more integrated municipal operations.

1. This includes improving data sharing across agencies, streamlining our operational processes, and enhancing digital platforms so that residents can provide feedback and receive updates on the agencies’ actions in a more convenient manner.
2. At the same time, technology is helping us to improve operational effectiveness on the ground. Agencies are using robotics, remote sensing, artificial intelligence and data-driven systems to support inspections, monitoring and maintenance operations.

Managing Our Underground Space

20.      This is also our approach to an area of work that speaks to the complexity of managing a dense, mature city – which is the management of underground utilities.

21.      In Singapore, which is a land-scarce country, making better use of underground space is critical to optimising our limited land resources.

1. Beneath our city lies a complex and dense network of utility infrastructure, which requires careful planning and coordination.
2. However, as different utility owners plan, install and maintain their assets separately, conflicts may arise and sometimes only discovered during construction, which could result in delays, additional costs and project disruptions. I am sure what I have just described is not unique to Singapore – there are many cities around the world which face similar challenges.
3. The challenge is compounded by the fact that underground utility records are often maintained across multiple systems and may not always be accurate.
4. As a result, contractors frequently need to carry out exploratory investigations to verify the location of existing utilities before commencing their works.
5. This can lead to repeated road openings, causing inconvenience to the public, increasing construction costs and extending project timelines.

22.      In Singapore, we have been tackling this challenge on multiple fronts.

1. On the planning side, the Urban Redevelopment Authority, or URA, has put in place an enhanced workflow to optimise the planning and coordination of underground utility network projects, since 2024. This ensures that potential conflicts are identified and resolved early, before construction begins, making project implementation smoother and more efficient.
2. To date, we have coordinated about 272 kilometres of utility corridors and avoided about S$300 million in unnecessary costs from having to re-route existing utilities halfway through construction.
3. We are using non-invasive utilities detection technologies such as electromagnetic locators and ground-penetrating radars to supplement traditional trial trenches. This will give project teams a clearer picture of what lies underground and reduce the need for exploratory digging, which means less disruption for our road users. We intend to scale up the use of these technologies.
4. We are also collecting data and building better digital records of our underground space. My hope is that we will work towards having a digital twin of our underground space, just like what we have today for our above-ground space.
5. The Singapore Land Authority, or SLA, is developing a centralised submission portal for project teams to submit utilities data with locational information after completing works. Over time, this will help to build more reliable shared records. The portal is now being trialled on selected projects, starting from this year and will be scaled up next year.
6. SLA will also be working closely with industry stakeholders to develop a governance framework to enhance the collection and sharing of underground utility information. This will require support across the industry to ensure that good quality utility data is captured and submitted accurately. So we need everyone to come onboard. We need everyone to play their part. We need everyone’s cooperation, so that we can get this done for the benefit of everyone.

23.      We know that many cities are grappling with this challenge – how to build a reliable shared picture of what lies underground. This endeavour requires stakeholders from across the entire ecosystem to work closely together.

1. And this is why SLA has recently convened global experts to pool our collective experience into a playbook of international best practices for building underground asset registers.
2. The playbook will be published publicly next month. We hope that this can be a useful resource for all cities, and a foundation for continued exchange and dialogue on how we can better manage our underground utilities data.

Importance of Collaboration and Knowledge-Sharing

24.      Now, let me move to the next part of my speech, which is to talk about the importance of collaboration and knowledge sharing. So the work that I have described earlier - whether on housing, on water, energy, municipal services or underground utilities – they all reflect a common thread: and that is the most enduring solutions are built not in isolation, but through sustained collaboration and the open exchange of knowledge and experience.

1. With that in mind, I would like to mention several publications that we will be launching today, which I hope will be useful to our city leaders and practitioners here.

Publication Launches

25.      Let me begin with a framework that I believe offers a compelling vision for many cities.

26.      The Centre for Liveable Cities, or CLC, is launching a new publication titled "Beyond Sustainability: Building a Regenerative Future for Our Cities."

1. Drawing on its research and multisectoral engagements with over 100 global experts, CLC has developed the Regenerative City Framework - a structured approach for city leaders and practitioners to move beyond minimising harm towards actively generating co-benefits across liveability, resilience and resource efficiency.
2. The framework outlines four paradigm shifts that build on and go beyond sustainability, and pairs ambition with accountability through assessment indicators to measure progress.
3. It also highlights the importance of sound policy and good governance in driving thoughtful planning at scale.

27.      The regenerative approach extends beyond the built environment to our relationship with nature.

1. CLC has also released a new Urban Systems Studies publication, "Mandai: Balancing Development and Nature", capturing how Mandai Wildlife Group worked with ecologists, engineers and planners to design development that actively supports the surrounding ecosystem.
2. The experience gained at Mandai now informs the work of Mandai Nature, the conservation arm of the Mandai Wildlife Group, across over 40 conservation projects in Southeast Asia.
3. For our city leaders, I hope this offers a useful lens to think about how ecological sensitivity can be woven into urban planning and development decisions.

28.      We have also collated lessons from other cities that have done well. URA has produced a new publication on the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize, featuring in-depth insights from city leaders of the 2026 prize-winning cities, as well as best practices and innovations on how cities can overcome urban challenges.

29.      Finally, CLC is launching the latest issue of Urban Solutions. Aligned with our Summit theme of "ACT Now!", this issue explores how cities and stakeholders around the world are accelerating implementation, collaborating across sectors, and transforming ideas into actionable strategies.

30.      I hope these publications will serve as both inspiration and practical reference for cities at different stages of the urban transformation journey.

Conclusion

31.      The challenges our cities face are real and growing. We know that. And the people we serve can feel that and can experience that too. Our collective capacity to respond is also something that is real and growing, when we share knowledge openly, when we collaborate widely, and when we act with urgency.

32.      So I like to encourage everyone to participate actively in the upcoming discussions – please share your successes, but also share the mistakes that you have made, setbacks that you have experienced and the ideas that you are exploring, so that we can learn from one another in the process. It is through such candid and constructive exchanges that we can help one another to do even better and to grow together, and to serve our people better. And this is what we hope to do to build a community of city leaders.