2025 Message from the Executive Director, CLC

2025 was a productive year for the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC). As 2025 draws to a close, we are heartened by the continued support of our many stakeholders and new partnerships formed that have helped CLC to advance the sharing of practical knowledge how cities around the world can become more liveable, sustainable, and resilient.

Knowledge Platforms

Globally, CLC continues to convene and facilitate knowledge exchanges between cities.  In July, we organised the 14th Mayors Forum of the World Cities Summit together with the City of Vienna, the 2020 Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize (LKYWCP) Laureate City, bringing together 61 mayors and city leaders from more than 50 countries. At this gathering, host city Mayor Dr Michael Ludwig referenced Benjamin Barber’s book – “If Mayors Ruled The World” – underscoring the important role cities play in addressing global issues and demonstrating how knowledge sharing can inspire and inform us toward positive urban transformation. In November, we continued these discussions in Brazil at the C40 World Mayors Summit and UNFCCC COP30, exploring how cities can strengthen climate action while building liveable communities for the future.

Knowledge Products

We launched several research publications. "Creating Liveable Cities: A Cross Domain Approach to Sustainable Mobility" presents a new framework to identify and maximise the co-benefits of mobility interventions featuring case studies from Barcelona and Singapore.  The latest "Urban Systems Studies: Neighbourhood Centres" also provides fresh insights into community-centred urban planning. Together with Urban Innovation Vienna, we jointly published "Providing Homes for All - Insights from Singapore & Vienna", which explores strategies to tackle shared urban housing challenges in different contexts.

Knowledge Programmes

CLC continues to run multiple training programmes, equipping public sector leaders from Singapore and a host of international partner cities with practical tools for urban governance and leadership. This year we had the honour of working with and hosting delegations from Africa, Australia, China, Japan, Mexico, the Pacific Islands and Thailand.

Knowledge Partners

I am pleased to share the continued growth of our global City Network for the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize (LKYWCP). This year, five LKYWCP Special Mention cities signed the declaration to join the Network, namely, Antwerp, Brisbane, Cape Town, Melbourne and Yokohama. This brings the total number of participating cities to 15. Their commitment to join the LKYWCP Network demonstrates the shared vision among leading cities worldwide to collaborate in growing our collective knowledge and learning from one another's experiences. We also signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with new partners including UNDP, WRLDCTY, C40 Cities and the Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD), for knowledge exchange.

Conclusion

As 2026 approaches, we remain committed to our mandate of sharing knowledge. We are looking forward to the upcoming World Cities Summit (WCS) taking place in Singapore from 14 to 16 June 2026. Themed “ACT Now! Accelerate, Collaborate, Transform”,  this milestone 10th Edition of WCS is poised to deliver more in content and network value.

My colleagues at CLC and I extend our heartfelt appreciation to all our partners for your continued collaboration and trust. Here's to another year of meaningful partnerships and impactful urban solutions.

Wishing everyone a joyous Christmas and wonderful New Year!

Hugh Lim
Executive Director, CLC