Local, innovative solutions in each city can resonate beyond borders: Chee Hong Tat

Straits Times

04-07-2025

– While every city faces unique challenges, solutions created locally – from flood protection to involving communities in decision-making – resonate far beyond borders.
This was the key message by National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat, who chaired the World Cities Summit Mayors Forum in Vienna on July 3 and 4.
The Mayors Forum gathered leaders from more than 50 cities who convened in Vienna City Hall to discuss pressing urban challenges and share best practices across themes that include affordable housing, alternative energy and water management.
'The most innovative solutions often emerge when we reach out and learn from one another... That combination of being clear about what we want to do, but also being very open to learning from others and sharing best practices with one another gives us the greatest likelihood of success,' said Mr Chee in his closing address to delegates.
In highlighting citizens' participation in shaping policies, the minister cited the example of Caracas' government plan that guides for the country's development up to through 2030. The plan has seven pillars, including expanding Venezuela's economy beyond oil and reducing crime and violence.
This roadmap for Venezuela was formed through extensive consultations with communities across the country.
'Today, residents of Caracas are empowered to shape national priorities, and also supervise transformation projects...,' said Mr Chee. 'When governments actively partner citizens, we can deliver more effective services for all.'
On the topic of preventing natural disasters, Vienna's unconventional flood protection measure, which involved building an island in the middle of a river, was highlighted.
To prevent the banks from overflowing during flooding events, the Danube River which runs through the city had a side channel carved next to it in the 1980s, essentially widening the river. The cultural city had suffered several floods in the 1800s and in 1954, prompting the widening of the river.
The excavated soil was used to build the 21km-long Danube Island in the middle of the river, which has since become a favourite recreation spot for the Viennese , with its beaches and walking trails that run through vegetation .
In September 2024, Vienna was spared the major damages that Storm Boris wreaked on other parts of Europe, partly due to the Danube Island project. The BBC reported that 10 people were lightly injured by the floods and only 15 homes had to be evacuated.
Coinciding with the forum, Singapore's Centre for Liveable Cities had released a few publications. One of them is a book detailing the housing policies of Vienna and Singapore.
Vienna has a social housing policy, where more than half of its population live in either city-owned flats or publicly subsidised housing.
The large share of subsidised homes exerts a price-dampening effect on the private housing market there, and a person's social status cannot be inferred from where he or she lives.
Rent in Vienna remains lower compared with other European capitals like Berlin, Paris and Madrid.
One of the youth delegates of the forum, Mr Zac Toh – founder of urban farm and social enterprise City Sprouts – said: 'Vienna's social housing policy is interesting. It's on a rental basis, which means there is a low house ownership. Yet, they can still pass down their social houses to the next generation.
'For this approach, Vienna has to have a good amount of land banked, as well as an efficient system for recovering capital.'
Singapore Management University's (SMU) Professor of Urban Climate Winston Chow, who moderated the two-day forum, told the media that cities can only thrive if the community's voices are heard and not sidelined.
'There are far too many cities where local indigenous knowledge is excluded, and that leads to very detrimental outcomes,' he noted.
Preceding the Mayors Forum was the SMU City Dialogues conference at the same venue on July 2.
Beyond looking at resilient cities of the global north that have been branded as 'liveable', the conversations across the three days also focused on cities that require more basic needs, and are classified as 'survivable', a term used by Professor Loretta Lees of Boston University.
'They can't take that next step to be resilient because they're so busy dealing with the day-to-day circumstances of crises in their city and ensuring that they can live, feed their children, get a job,' said Prof Lees, who spoke at a roundtable discussion on July 2.