Korean Smart City Infrastructure Expanding Overseas

▲ 2020 'K-City Network Global Cooperation Program' Infographic (Provided by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The government is actively pursuing the export of Korean-style smart city infrastructure through global cooperation. It is evaluated that the recent international public contest confirmed the high demand for Korean-style smart cities in overseas markets.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 1st that a total of 80 cases from 23 countries, exceeding initial expectations, were received as a result of the public contest for the 'K-City Network Global Cooperation Program,' which was newly established this year to export Korean-style smart cities.

The K-City Network is a project proposed by Minister Kim Hyun-mi of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport at the 'Korea-ASEAN Smart City Ministerial Meeting' held during the 'Korea-ASEAN (ASEAN) Special Summit' last November. The international public contest was conducted from January 31 to the 20th of last month. The government limited the applicants for the contest to overseas governments, local governments, and public institutions to secure momentum for G2G (Government to Government) level project promotion and to enhance credibility.

Looking at the results of this contest by region, the New Southern region accounted for the highest proportion with 39 cases (48.8%) from 10 countries. The New Northern and Latin American regions also submitted 27 cases from 6 countries and 9 cases from 4 countries, respectively. In particular, Turkey and Malaysia showed high interest by submitting 16 and 9 projects, respectively.

▲ Infographic by region showing the results of the '2020 K-City Network Global Cooperation Program' contest applications (Provided by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport)

By type, the smart single-solution type accounted for 46 cases (57.5%) from 19 countries, and the smart city development type received 31 cases (38.8%) from 17 countries. Among the smart single-solution types, the transportation sector, such as the introduction of ITS traffic systems, was the most common with 15 cases, followed by the e-government sector, including data integration and operation platform construction, with 14 cases. The smart city development type included various requests ranging from establishing smart city development roadmaps for entire countries or cities (Laos) to new town development, station area development, and airport relocation site development.

Projects selected as part of the K-City Network cooperation will have master plans established for smart city construction in the case of city development types. For single solution types, preliminary feasibility studies and support for building smart solutions in fields such as transportation, environment, and e-government will be provided.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to collect opinions from overseas diplomatic missions and related ministries over two weeks regarding government-to-government cooperation status such as MOUs, project potential, and cooperation possibilities with Korean companies. After evaluation by a committee, the final selection results will be announced on the 20th. It is expected that about 10 projects will be selected through this process.

Lee Sang-joo, Director of the Urban Policy Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "Unlike existing projects, the K-City Network greatly enhanced project credibility through an international public contest based on government-to-government cooperation." He added, "Promising projects will be directly linked to main investments such as the Global Infrastructure Venture Fund (GIVF) and the Global Plant, Infrastructure, and Smart City (PIS) Fund." He also stated that since the high overseas demand for Korean-style smart cities was confirmed through this contest, "We plan to actively utilize this as an export opportunity for Korean-style smart cities by sharing it not only with related departments within the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport but also at the whole-of-government level with organizations such as the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.