Opening Address by Minister Chee Hong Tat at the World Cities Summit (WCS) Opening Plenary

Prime Minister Lawrence Wong
Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning and a warm welcome to Singapore and our 10th edition of the World Cities Summit.

The theme for this opening plenary - Moving From Aspiration to Acceleration - is about translating ideas into concrete and meaningful outcomes in a more efficient, effective and sustainable manner. While each of us brings different perspectives, we are united by a common purpose: to make our cities better places for the people who call them home. Importantly, the World Cities Summit theme this year also sets up the transformation of our cities as an outcome, facilitated by collaboration.

We look forward to learning from one another during this Summit. Let me start the sharing process by briefly highlighting a few examples from Singapore: making our city greener, preserving our heritage, and building the partnerships that underpin and sustain these efforts.

City in Nature

I will begin with how we are greening our city. A liveable city needs more than hard infrastructure, like buildings, bridges and roads. We must also provide greenery and recreational spaces that enhance our people's well-being and foster a stronger sense of community and identity:

As a city state, it is even more imperative for Singapore to integrate nature and greenery into our urban landscape.

This has been a key focus for our founding Prime Minister Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his colleagues. And we have continued with this commitment over the past six decades since our independence in 1965.

Even though land is scarce in Singapore, and there are many competing uses for this precious resource, we have safeguarded more than 7,800 hectares of nature reserves, parks, and park connectors throughout our city;

And we aim to add another 1,000 hectares of green spaces by 2035.

When planned and implemented well, green spaces can serve multiple purposes simultaneously:

For example, we have designed ecological corridors planted with native trees and shrubs. These Nature Ways support biodiversity by allowing animals like birds and butterflies to move between our green spaces, while cooling and beautifying our streets.

We are also harnessing the health benefits of our parks, by integrating therapeutic gardens, accessible pathways, and other features that support the mental and physical wellbeing of residents and visitors.

Our parks are also designed to create spaces for people to bond and build stronger ties with one another across different towns in Singapore.

This approach allows for our green spaces to also contribute to healthier and more resilient communities.

A key takeaway is that every planning decision is an opportunity to achieve multiple benefits through clever design and innovative use of space. This principle is also at the heart of the "Regenerative City" framework and publication that we launched yesterday at the Mayor's Forum.

Preserving our Heritage

Next, a liveable city is shaped not only by what we build today, but also by what we choose to keep from the past. And how we conserve and repurpose these spaces to keep them vibrant and well-used. We are rejuvenating neighbourhoods by giving new life to heritage buildings that hold our community's shared memories.

For example, the former Commonwealth Avenue Wet Market, one of Singapore's early purpose-built wet markets, has been conserved and repurposed as Margaret Drive Market Place. It retains its iconic vaulted roof while housing modern dining facilities, a clinic, and a gym.

And at Emerald Hill, the former Singapore Chinese Girls' School, which played a key role in the history of women's education in this country, will also take on a new chapter as a mixed-use lifestyle destination for dining, accommodation, and the arts.

This reflects a broader commitment. In 2022, we formalised our Heritage Impact Assessment framework for large-scale public development projects that may significantly impact sites of heritage value. We want to preserve and celebrate these heritage elements because they are important parts of our history, our shared memories and our sense of identity as Singaporeans.

Partnerships are Key

I have given you some examples of how we built a city in nature and how we preserved our heritage. None of this is possible, none of this can be done by the government alone, as we need to work hand-in-hand with the people and private sectors. Partnership is key, partnership is what makes the difference:

In heritage planning, we work closely with expert panels and community interest groups on ways to retain a site's memories, which could be through the retention of built heritage or other heritage interpretation measures.

In our City in Nature efforts, we partner nature and animal groups, as well as community volunteers to engage residents on conservation and biodiversity efforts.

The same is true for large-scale urban developments. One example is Jurong Lake District, which will be Singapore's largest mixed-use business district outside the city centre. Government lays the groundwork through upfront planning and infrastructure investments, but we need the private sector to provide the energy, ideas and investments that will bring the district to life.

The key point is this: we move faster and achieve better outcomes when public, private, and civic sectors work together. This is very much the spirit of our theme for this Summit and the focus of our plenary today.

Closing

Looking around this room, we have ministers, governors, mayors, corporate and agency leaders, researchers, practitioners, young people, and many more. Each of you can enrich our collective understanding of what it takes to build a great city, and turn aspiration into action.

I hope you will share your experience and ideas with one another openly, and leave this Summit with renewed energy and concrete ideas on how you can further accelerate progress when you return home.

It is now my pleasure to open the World Cities Summit 2026 and to welcome Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to give the Special Address.