The World Cities Summit (WCS), Singapore International Water Week (SIWW), and CleanEnviro Summit Singapore (CESS) will take centre-stage from the 8th to the 12th of July at the Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre. This year, the events will welcome more than 20,000 attendees as well as a record number of mayors from around the world.
WCS, SIWW and CESS are the world’s leading platforms to drive inte4grated urban solutions, connect global business experts, policy-makers, industry leaders and innovators through strategic collaborative efforts and cutting-edge technologies.
Delegates and trade visitors can look forward to an array of showcases of new innovations and technologies such as autonomous robotics, biomimicry, 3D eco-printing and energy harvesting, virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) at the City Solutions Singapore Expo, the global marketplace for innovative urban solutions.
“Although the challenge of urbanisation is not new, the urgency is greater now than ever before because urbanisation is rising at an unprecedented rate, especially in ASEAN. This dramatically changes the landscape of cities, water consumption patterns, and environmental challenges. Bringing World Cities Summit, Singapore International Water Week and CleanEnviro Summit Singapore together creates a meaningful platform to drive decisive action from policy-making to planning to creating go-to-market innovations,” Michael Koh, joint spokesperson for the three events, said. “The focus this year is to accelerate action so that we can concentrate not just on solving urbanisation challenges by anticipating problems.”
Singapore has also designated 2018 as the Year of Climate Action. In support of the effort for a sustainable future, organisers of the three events will continue to promote environmentally-friendly practices to reduce their carbon footprint. Electricity consumed by the three events this year will be fully matched with locally-produced Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).
This year is also significant because Singapore holds the Chairmanship of ASEAN. In line with the Chairmanship, Singapore will host for the first time a number of key ASEAN meetings. The 6th Meeting of Governors/Mayors of ASEAN Capital Cities (MGMAC) ASEAN Mayors Forum, ASEAN Smart Cities Network Inaugural Meeting and the Special ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Climate Action.
Forefront
WCS, SIWW and CESS will bring global leaders and start-ups together to engage in high-level sustainability dialogues to address emerging challenges, strategies and solutions in sessions such as the Opening Address and Plenary as well as thematic and business forums such as the China Innovation Forum, South Asia Business Forum, and World Bank Business Forum among many others.
World leaders from government, industry and international organisations will also converge at the inaugural Environment & Water Leaders Forum (EWLF) to share insights on cross-disciplinary environmental and water policies and governance issues, address emerging challenges and examine the respective roles of key stakeholders in co-creating liveable and sustainable cities of the future.
The Mayors Forum will welcome over 160 mayors and city leaders, the largest congregation of mayors and city leaders in the WCS history. Among them is Shri Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; Park Won Soon, Mayor of Seoul; and Lucy Turnbull Chief Commissioner, Greater Sydney Commission. Mayors will discuss how local governments can capitalise on disruptive innovations and attract financing for infrastructure projects.
“The combination of these high-level global discussions on pressing urban issues and sharing of best practices form the foundation for a concerted and integrated effort to make our cities better for people and ensure that our cities remain sustainable and liveable,” Ms Adeline Lim, deputy director, Centre for Liveable Cities (WCS), said. “We need to ensure that our residents can continue to have a high quality living environment, even as our cities transform with technological development. The World Cities Summit 2018 is a great platform where efforts on urban planning can be shared and discussed, to encourage solutions and avenues which will ultimately make cities more liveable and resilient.”
Vital to Singapore’s push for a high quality of life, a competitive economy and a sustainable environment, this year’s Singapore Government Pavilion will demonstrate the shared vision and collaborative efforts of driving a seamless integration of innovation, strategic planning and collaboration by various agencies.
Sharing innovation
The integrated platform, Cities Solutions Singapore Expo, will host some 1,100 exhibiting companies and 28 group/country pavilions to catalyse new investment and partnership opportunities for the push of sustainable development ideas to fruition and commercial success.
At the City Solutions Singapore, expo attendees will have the opportunity to experience smart capabilities that are aimed at addressing the accelerated demand for cross-disciplinary solutions and resolving challenges of increasing urbanisation and rapid digitisation amongst other disruptive factors.
“The considerable implications of rapid urbanisation on the environment has made it increasingly critical to bring tangible solutions to transform and innovate the ways we can advance the waste management, cleaning, sustainable energy, pest management and pollution control sectors,” Mr Dalson Chung, managing director of CleanEnviro Summit Singapore. “Anchored on Transforming Tomorrow’s Cities with Clean Environment Solutions, CleanEnviro Summit Singapore (CESS) plays a critical role in initiating discussions and collaborations with key stakeholders across the sustainable environmental services value chain. CESS’s Clean Environment Leaders Summit is a new strategic platform to connect and forge new partnerships to advance sustainability, address challenges and exchange ideas. Aspiring technopreneurs will also have the opportunity to showcase their capabilities and integration of cross-disciplinary and cutting-edge solutions at the summit’s Innovation Pitch.”
The second edition of the Innovation Pitch will draw focus to the themes of Robotics and Automation, and Improving Energy Efficiency in Waste-to-Energy Plants, among others. It is a unique platform for innovators, entrepreneurs, and companies to showcase and drive commercialisation of new technologies, innovations, products and services in the environmental sphere.
Transforming concepts
WCS, SIWW and CESS are global platforms focused on driving synergies across urban planning, water resources and environment sustainability with the aim to encourage public and private partnerships to actualise actionable insights, reach commercial opportunities and potentially identify resolutions for real-world sustainability issues.
“As the impact of climate change and rapid urbanisation continues to place further stress on the global water supply, it is imperative for key stakeholders to connect and co-create actionable steps that bring us closer to solving the global water crises,” Mr Bernard Tan, managing director of Singapore International Water Week, stated. “Singapore International Water Week has established itself as a global platform driving thought leadership and innovation for the entire water value chain. As we celebrate a decade of innovation and excellence, SIWW is committed to continue driving business opportunities and accelerating the commercialisation of new water technologies to endure water sustainability for future generations.”
This year, a range of tech-focused programmes such as the Water Convention and TechXchange & Innovation Pavilion, will spotlight the latest innovations and solutions in emerging technologies applied within water systems, as well as some of the novel technologies at SMART PUB that will be adopted in Singapore.
The Singapore Business Forum will also feature Singapore companies, their range of engineering expertise and technologies, as well as their involvement in infrastructural projects all around the world.
In addition, the 2018 Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize Laureate and Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Laureate will present award-winning case studies to facilitate the sharing of best practices in urban and water solutions that can be replicated across nations.
