Medellín is the host of the World Cities Summit 2019

During the World Cities Summit 2018 in Singapore and as part of the commitments acquired for winning the Lee Kuan Yew Award 2016 , Medellín has been presented as the host city of this event’s next year version. It is the first time WCS will be held in Latin America. About 300 high-level officials, including mayors, businessmen and experts in urban areas are expected to attend.

“We were invited to the World Cities and Mayors Summit during a work agenda in Singapore. There, I proudly presented our city, and held meetings with several world leaders who recognize its great progress. Today, Medellín is a benchmark all around the world. It is important to celebrate the ´progress made, but above all to understand and recognize that we still have many challenges to be faced and many things to improve. Medellín will host this event on July 10 and 12, 2019.” said the mayor of Medellín, Federico Gutiérrez Zuluaga after finishing his participation in the event.

In recent years, Medellín has hosted meetings with similar global impact such as the IDB Assembly (2009), the Ibero-American Culture Biennial (2010), the World Urban Forum – WUF (2014), the UNWTO Assembly (2015) ), Cities for Life (2015), the Global Entrepreneurship Congress – GEC (2016) and the World Economic Forum – WEF (2016); renowned events that generate international trust on the city and a make it a benchmark of social-urban transformation, innovation, governance, resilience, sustainability and citizen culture.

Context

In 2016, Medellín was awarded with the Lee Kuan Yew Award from the Government of Singapore. This distinction, which is considered to be the Nobel of cities, was awarded to the capital of Antioquia for its contributions to the creation of vibrant, livable and sustainable urban communities. Other cities that have been awarded are: Bilbao, Spain (2010); New York, United States (2012); Suzhou, China (2014); and recently Seoul, South Korea (2018).