Some 15,000 international delegates will converge in Singapore this July to look into integrated solutions for sustainable development.
Three mega events - the World Cities Summit, the Singapore International Water Week and the inaugural CleanEnviro Summit Singapore - will be held together for the first time from July 1 to 5.
This year’s World Cities Summit will serve as a stronger platform for business collaboration, with 60 Mayors in attendance.
This is twice the number that came at the last summit.
And this could mean major infrastructure deals being signed between Singapore companies and officials from other countries.
Cheng Hsing Yao, deputy executive director at Centre for Liveable Cities, said: “There’s a lot of interest in the development opportunities in particular regions and countries, and these include China, India, Southeast Asia and Japan. For the first time, we are organising these in-focus sessions that will focus on these growth regions, whereby leaders, government as well as business people will be presenting the development opportunities as well as best practices.”
By 2050, 70 per cent of the world’s population will be living in cities and this will create enormous pressure to find integrated solutions to meet the infrastructure needs of future generations.
One area that needs a more integrated solution is waste management.
The world produced two billon tonnes of municipal waste last year.
And the inaugural CleanEnviro Summit will focus on how best to manage this.
Andrew Tan, CEO of National Environment Agency, said: “Waste underpins the very basic public hygiene, public health, quality of life in many of these cities. The current solution which is to dump all the waste into landfills is not sustainable in the longer term, and here is where we need to look at alternative options, waste-to-energy, recycling.”
Experts say more investment in research and development is needed to create new solutions.
The Singapore International Water Week hopes to drive this effort.
Chew Men Leong, Chief Executive of PUB Singapore, said: “Last year, we actually concluded $2.9 billion worth of MOUs (memorandum of understandings) in the water sector. We have already committed $470 million worth of funding to drive the growth of the R&D sector. About half that amount is actually now committed to projects.”
Singapore’s integrated solutions to sustainable development such as Marina Bay, Punggol Eco-Town and the Jurong Lake District will also be showcased during the summit.
