Creating the World's Best 'Smart City'... Private Companies Invited to Participate in Competition

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] The 'Smart City National Pilot City,' which integrates new technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution, will be developed under private sector leadership. This is the world's first time such a city is being built on a blank slate.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 28th, "We plan to launch a public-private joint SPC within the year by conducting a public offering for private businesses to participate in the Smart City National Pilot City Project Corporation (SPC)."

The National Pilot City project breaks away from the traditional public-led new town development approach by freely applying private sector innovative technologies and smart services, presenting a future-oriented urban model.

Previously, the government designated two locations as national pilot cities: Sejong 5-1 Living Zone and Busan Eco Delta City (EDC), and established the basic concept, implementation plan, and service roadmap.

The goal of this public offering is to enhance the innovation, flexibility, and sustainability of the pilot city through private company participation.

The plan is to form an SPC jointly between the private and public sectors to create a Korean-style smart city and platform city that evolves autonomously for more than 15 years.

The government intends to ensure that public investment shares do not exceed the majority to allow the private sector to maximize creativity.

The government will provide various support measures to ensure the SPC for the pilot city can operate stably from a mid- to long-term perspective, including ▲ real estate development land supply ▲ budget support and deregulation ▲ domestic and international marketing ▲ expansion of small and medium-sized enterprise participation.

Additionally, this public offering includes safeguards related to ▲ public investment shares ▲ reinvestment of profits ▲ dividend caps to guarantee private sector autonomy while preventing the private sector from perceiving the project as short-term profit-oriented.

Letters of intent will be accepted by June 30, and business plans will be proposed by September 18, with the preferred negotiation candidate selected in October. The Ministry of Land plans to launch the public-private SPC for the pilot city within the year.

Park Jin-ho, head of the Smart City Team at the Ministry of Land, said, "The pilot city is a representative project that can realize the recently announced 'Korean New Deal,' and it is a very meaningful process internationally as it aims to create an innovative city leading the post-COVID-19 era."

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