The inaugural Seoul Smart City Prize winners received their awards from the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO) during a ceremony at Dongdaemun Design Plaza on Monday, Sept. 25.
Odense and Wellington were the top cities recognized, alongside the mayors of Dhaka South City Corporation and Konya. Out of 240 entries and 40 finalists, WeGO honored 21 cities, corporations, institutions, and individuals across multiple categories for the first-ever Seoul Smart City Prize, which was established by WeGO this year to promote human-centered smart city initiatives.
Human-CentriCity Project Gold, focusing on digital inclusion of vulnerable groups, went to the Danish city of Odense. It was praised for its Leadership, Empowerment, and Advocacy for the People (LEAP) digital platform that created a new methodology for increasing welfare in the future via online questionnaires and public meetings.
New Zealand’s Wellington won Tech-InnovaCity Gold, an award that prioritized innovative policies and technology integration. The Wellington Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin project distinguished itself by allowing communities to feel ownership for critical and coordinated climate adaptation decisions.
In the Leadership Prize category, there were two winners. Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, Mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation in Bangladesh, and Uğur İbrahim Altay, Mayor of Konya in Türkiye. Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh was awarded his prize for contributing significantly to Dhaka’s advancement and the well-being of residents. Meanwhile, Uğur İbrahim Altay was celebrated for implementing nearly 200 Smart City Applications to increase the quality of life and service efficiency in Konya, which is now an exemplary Smart Urbanism city on an international scale.
Moreover, there were Special Mentions awarded in conjunction with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) and International Institute for Management Development (IMD). GGGI’s Special Mention was presented to Taiwan’s Kaohsiung, while IMD’s Special Mentions went to Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates and Madinah in Saudi Arabia.
“We have been so impressed by the abundance of highly impressive projects in cities across the world, which have been implemented in an inclusive and innovative manner to citizens in their own environment. These are the qualities uniquely recognized by the Seoul Smart City Prize, and so we made sure we judged projects through a stringent process of evaluation,” said WeGO Secretary-General Park Jung-sook, co-host of the prize ceremony.
She added, “We look forward to the start of a tradition that honors human-centered smart city initiatives and encourages others to solve problems and urban polarization. To that end, we thank all of the applicants for this year’s inaugural Seoul Smart City Prize.”
In order to decide the winners of this year’s prize, the evaluation process was conducted in conjunction with Seoul National University’s Center for International Development Evaluation. Starting in March, there were three rounds of judging by a panel of smart city experts.
Monday’s winners personally received their awards from WeGO steering committee members, including Yves Daccord, President of Le Temps; Ajit Manocha, President & CEO of Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI); Frank Rijsberman, Director-General of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI); and Bruno Lanvin, President of the Smart City Observatory at The International Institute for Management Development business school (IMD).
WeGO is a membership-based international association of 160 local governments, 18 institutions, and 37 corporations from around the world, as of December 2022.
Participants from member cities and organizations will also be attending the triennial WeGO General Assembly in Seoul Tuesday, where they will discuss the key agenda for smart sustainable development and chart the direction of WeGO for the next three years.
The Assembly will additionally choose a new city to serve as the presidency following the current president city, which is Seoul led by Mayor Oh Se-hoon. Moreover, the host city of the next WeGO General Assembly will be selected along with the announcement of new WeGO regional offices in Central Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.