SINGAPORE, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan on Monday welcomed ministers from 12 countries across Africa, who came to the city-state for the third iteration of the Singapore-Sub-Saharan Africa High-Level Ministerial Exchange Visit.

Balakrishnan said the African countries have developed at an impressive pace and demonstrated incredible potential. However, the challenges confronting Africa are also more complex today, according to the foreign minister's welcome remarks.

"With over half of Africa's population set to urbanize by 2050, urbanization will be both an opportunity as well as a key challenge that many governments would have to face," Balakrishnan said, adding that the theme of this year's Exchange Visit, Singapore and Africa: Partners for Smart Cities, was "so apt."

He said Singapore had structured the Exchange Visit around three of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals, because building a smart city was not just about providing infrastructure or Internet connectivity, but about harnessing the new tools that the digital revolution was providing in order to improve living standards for every single citizen.

The three goals were decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation, and infrastructure; and sustainable cities and communities, he added.