plenary sessions will deal with cross-cutting issues around the interplay of people, technologies and markets facing cities today, with specific emphasis on leadership and governance, sustainable and eco-friendly cities as well as harmonious and sustainable communities. Complementing the plenary discussions, there will be a series of high-level Expert Panel Sessions for government representatives, policy makers and specific industry experts to discuss the challenges and solutions faced by cities around the world in greater details, covering areas of urban planning, infrastructure financing, public housing, built environment, waste management, climate change and urban biodiversity. These urban initiatives should incorporate principles of sustainable development and demonstrate an ability to bring social, economic and environmental benefits in holistic way to communities around the world. The Prize will also place an emphasis on practical and cost effective solutions and ideas that can be easily replicated across cities. The inaugural Lee Kuan Yew World Cities is co-organised by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URA) and Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC). Global demographic trends indicate that the degree of urbanization will increase and that more people will live in cities. Already, in 2008, more than half of the world's population lived in cities. Biodiversity will play an increasingly important role within the urban landscape. Singapore, though being a highly urbanised island-city-state, still manages to retain a surprisingly rich array of biodiversity by virtue of its geographical location within a biodiversity hotspot. Therefore, Singapore is well suited and equipped with relevant expertise to establish a cities' biodiversity index. Hence, Singapore's Minister for National Development, Mr Mah Bow Tan, proposed the establishment of an index to measure biodiversity in cities at the 9th Meeting of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, Germany in May 2008. To lay out the details for the index, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the National Parks Board of Singapore jointly organised a Technical Expert Workshop on The Singapore Index on Cities' Biodiversity. 17 technical experts on biodiversity indicators as well as city executives responsible for implementation and management of biodiversity and urban projects attended the workshop. The Singapore Index on Cities' Biodiversity would measure performance and assign scores based on three categories: Biodiversity - the number of plant, animal and other species that exist in a city The services that these plants and animals provide, such as pollination and as carbon sinks How well a