The World Cities Summit on "Livable and Vibrant Cities"

Mayors and senior officials around the world joined other prominent speakers and delegates from governments, international organisations, private sector companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) at the first-ever World Cities Summit. This international conference on public governance and the sustainable development of cities, was practitioner focussed, and discussed the challenges of urbanisation and examined effective practices in governance, urban planning, infrastructure development and environmental management so as to build “Liveable and Vibrant Cities”, which was also the theme of the conference.

Over 5000 participants attended the first-ever World Cities Summit, held on 24-25 June 2008 in Singapore, the city-state.  The Summit coincided with the East Asia Summit Conference on Liveable Cities comprising 16 countries, as well as well the first Singapore Water Week attended by 400 participating companies from 40 countries. The meeting was opened by Mr. Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minster of Singapore and was informed by the Mayors Conference in Bonn in May.  

In addressing the participants in this historic event, Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, stated that:  “While cities are today part of the problem of the current unprecedented loss of biodiversity, they are also part of the solution.  Indeed, the fight for life on Earth will be won or lost in cities. The hearts of citizen must be won.  Local authorities have a major role to play, as global change starts at the local level.” 

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