Friends
Colleagues
Ladies and Gentlemen
We have come to the end of the Mayors Forum. I thank all of you for your active participation and generous sharing of your ideas and experiences. It is inspiring to feel the passion and conviction behind many of your speeches and interventions, as you strive to make your cities better places for your people.
I hope you have benefitted from this Forum as much as I have. I have certainly learnt much from the illuminating discussions we have had over the past two days. Special thanks go to our Moderator, Greg Clark, for summarising our discussions so succinctly at the end of each session, and for asking targeted questions to help us better grasp the trends and challenges we face.
We had arranged four sessions for this Forum, “Housing and Economic Development”; “Transportation and Mobility”; “Sustainability and Resiliency”; and “Education and Competitiveness”, for the ease of discussion. But I think we all know that these issues cannot be tackled in silo. It was pointed out, for instance, that it is not good enough to have affordable housing if there is no transport connectivity between home and workplace, or provision of basic services. I believe there is increasing recognition that these different facets of cities should be considered as a whole so that the challenges and opportunities we face can be addressed more effectively.
I would like to share with you some of my takeaways from this Forum. Broadly (and at a risk of oversimplifying), there are four issues that cities will need to address, regardless of the stage of development they are in. First, rapid demographic changes in cities, such as an ageing population or mass migration of people from surrounding areas to cities. We have heard examples of how the success of individual cities has drawn an influx of people, in turn stressing the city infrastructure and supply of affordable housing. For example, the de Blasio administration is taking bold steps to provide affordable housing, because more than half of New Yorkers are paying more than a third of their income on housing, in the form of rent. At the same time, cities are also learning, very quickly, that they have to find ways to cope with the changing needs of an ageing population and evolving aspirations of an increasingly diverse people.
Second, the implications of growth and how it should be managed to ensure inclusiveness, and to ensure that growth really translates to a better quality of life for our people. One mayor shared his experience of seeing young people displaced from his city, and being replaced by wealthier residents from the city and elsewhere, as housing became too expensive as the city begins to succeed. It is therefore imperative that we continually review our education policies to ensure that the younger generations are prepared for the jobs that are to be, and not just the jobs of yesteryear, so that they can also benefit from the growth of our cities.
Third, imperfections in coordination across agencies, both laterally within the same level of government, and vertically between the federal, state and local governments, leading both to gaps in governance or a situation where each agency though on its own is doing the right thing, but when seen in totality actually pull counterproductively in different directions. Some of you have shared examples of how transport and connectivity plans at the national level have indirectly constrained cities’ ability to reduce reliance on private vehicles and encourage the use of alternative modes of transport that are friendlier to the environment and the city.
Fourth, vulnerabilities to systemic risks and unforeseen shocks to our cities. As we pursue efficiency and connectivity, both within our cities and with the rest of the world, we inevitably become more susceptible to risks that come with over-dependency on centralised systems, as well as shocks that transcend borders and can hit us when we least expect it, like the spread of epidemics. As some of you have pointed out, agencies need to better coordinate their plans to ensure that each component of emergency and risk management can be seamlessly and effectively carried out.
There are, again, four things we can do, for a start, to address these issues, and many of you around the tables have taken those steps. First, to adopt a long-term yet adaptive approach to urban planning, which provides the policy tools for city leaders to encourage or guide the behaviour of businesses and residents to realise your visions for your cities. Thoughtful urban planning also allows us to bring economic activity and jobs closer to homes, in turn unlocking the potential of existing residential estates. We heard Suzhou’s experience of how developers can be guided, with the right incentives and policies, to provide affordable public housing for the locals, as well as develop in a way that is sensitive to the environment and Suzhou’s cultural heritage. This is not dissimilar to New York City’s approach towards encouraging affordable housing through conditional rezoning of select areas. So thoughtful urban planning can make a major difference.
Second, to think out of the box for solutions, harnessing the benefits of technological advancements and innovation. I am heartened to hear that there are more partnerships between city governments and academic institutions to look for new ideas, in tandem with more crowdsourcing of ground-up solutions. But in the hot pursuit for new ideas and suggestions, there is also value in pausing and reflecting on how existing systems can be improved or better made use of. As the Mayor of Medellín put it, our people can travel less and relieve the transport burden by teleworking more, or staggering the working hours so as to tackle the crush at peak period. This does not require new infrastructure, just fresh perspectives on traditional ways of doing things, and openness of our peoples’ minds to embrace something that may be counter-intuitive in the beginning, but contributes to the greater good in the long term.
Third, to improve communication and coordination between national and local agencies, so that plans can be aligned and resources made used of efficiently to generate maximum benefit for our people. For instance, in planning for education and employment of young people, there is always scope for economic development agencies and educators to work closely with leaders of new industries, so that young people can be better placed to join the workforce after graduation. A workforce that is harmonised with the development pace of the city will certainly contribute to the overall competitiveness of the city.
Fourth, to build in resilience as part of our long-term planning for cities. Bandung’s use of a central command centre for emergency planning, bringing in data from all the emergency services and utilities agencies, and to tap on technology to enhance early warning systems, allows for swift crisis response and is one worth emulating. Beyond resilience of physical infrastructure, it is also important to use planning to build social resilience. The Mayor of Medellín shared that he was able to reduce youth violence and crime rate in his city dramatically by providing accessible education and sports facilities that are available to all, regardless of their income levels. This channels the energies of the more restless residents away from violence to something that is healthier and more communal, in turn strengthening social resilience.
The effectiveness of these moves depends, however, on strong leadership with bold visions for the cities, as well as good governance that has the trust of the peoples, without which implementation could be unsustainable, or met with strong resistance. As several of you mentioned, people want to be part of the urban renewal process and they want their voices heard by the local authorities. Active civic participation in our cities’ evolution is a good thing – not only can we get more ideas, we can also influence mindsets and engender a greater sense of ownership among the residents and drive positive change that is sustainable beyond the cycles of government administration.
Cities play an increasingly important role in realising sustainable development, both at global and local levels. Mayors and city leaders feel the pulse of the cities and are better placed to anticipate and address the aspirations and concerns of their people. You are the bridge between the pursuit of international agendas and national goals, and the implementation of effective and practicable measures that feed towards these goals, with the support of the people, and for the people.
The Mayors Declaration reaffirms cities’ collective commitment to champion sustainability and liveability through strengthening various facets of urban governance and development, such as promoting inclusiveness in economic growth, providing quality housing and transport options, building resilience and capability of our cities, as well as working closely with the private and people sectors to realise our collective vision.
The Declaration will serve as the Mayors Forum input to the Habitat III agenda, which will be held in October 2016 in Quito, Ecuador.
Singapore remains committed to this process of open communication, candid exchange of views and mutual learning. We will continue to facilitate this process as best as we can. I look forward to meeting all of you again at the next Mayors Forum in Singapore at the World Cities Summit in July next year.
In the meantime, I hope you can continue the conversations with one another to address areas of mutual interests and where possible, pursue future collaboration. The network and collaborative relationships should not end with this Forum. Instead, they should strengthen over time as we continue our learning journey through the WCS Mayors Forum.
On this note, I would like to close the conference with gratitude and appreciation. Both to all of you, Mayors and City Leaders for your active participation, and also the many colleagues and counterparts and friends from New York’s City Hall and well as Singapore for organising and facilitating this Forum. Our discussions these two days have enriched us with many examples of resilience and inclusiveness, defined and applied in ways that made most sense to our local conditions. This puts us in good stead when we return to our respective cities to imagine the boundless possibilities in creating a better future for our people. I look forward to meeting all of you again next year.
Thank you.