Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Selects Drone Test Cities: Jeju, Busan, Daejeon, and Goyang

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 21st that it has selected four cities?Jeju-do, Busan Metropolitan City, Daejeon Metropolitan City, and Goyang-si in Gyeonggi-do?as the ‘2020 Drone Demonstration Cities’ to implement new drone services and technologies in urban areas.

The Ministry also selected 13 companies for the regulatory sandbox project to support early commercialization of excellent drone technologies, and plans to establish safety management measures and begin pilot tests as early as June.

Drones are expected to be a new growth engine for South Korea, but the domestic drone industry has faced difficulties in developing new technologies due to lack of funding. Furthermore, even for demonstration of developed innovative technologies, rigid regulations have limited testing mainly to suburban areas rather than urban centers, raising questions about the effectiveness of such demonstrations.

Accordingly, since 2018, the Ministry has been promoting the ‘Drone Regulatory Sandbox Project’ to focus financial and administrative support so that drone companies can commercialize innovative technologies and services early.

The number of drone demonstration cities has been expanded to four this year from two last year, with each local government planned to receive up to 1 billion KRW in support.

Jeju-do, selected for the second consecutive year as a demonstration city, will advance drone-based safety services by showcasing smart safety monitoring that notifies acquaintances of dangerous situations and a drone emergency supply delivery service before rescue workers arrive in case of emergencies on Hallasan Mountain.

Newly selected Busan will build and demonstrate an integrated system using drones to manage the environment in ultra-high-density areas and Nakdonggang Ecological Park, as well as to address natural disasters and calamities, with plans to export the service to overseas sister cities in the future.

Daejeon, where drone flights are difficult due to the entire area being a no-fly zone, will conduct demonstrations such as drone inspections of urban gas pipelines and precise emergency delivery takeoff and landing using public institution rooftops.

Goyang-si plans to demonstrate drone-based safety management centered on information technology by diagnosing and inspecting facilities such as sinkhole accident sites and analyzing and transmitting data in real time.

Each of the 13 drone companies selected for the regulatory sandbox project will receive up to 400 million KRW to cover costs required for technology demonstrations.

Kim Yi-tak, Director of Aviation Policy, said, “We expect that the domestic drone industry will make groundbreaking progress through the innovative ideas and technological capabilities of Korean drone companies, and that the everyday use of drones will significantly improve the quality of life experienced by the public.”

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