Seoul City to Invest 320 Billion Won in 'Informatization Projects'... 126.3 Billion Won for 'Smart City'

In the First Quarter Alone, 476 Out of 1,045 Cases Have Early Order Plans... Expected Support for Small and Medium ICT Companies with Creation of 3,245 Jobs

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 21st that it will invest 321.3 billion KRW in 1,045 informatization projects this year, of which 126.3 billion KRW will be allocated to 220 projects in the smart city sector.

According to Seoul City, the smart city projects include 69 CCTV projects (31.6 billion KRW), 8 WiFi projects (24.1 billion KRW), 30 Internet of Things (IoT) projects (23.4 billion KRW), 15 GIS projects (12.2 billion KRW), 30 non-face-to-face projects (11.7 billion KRW), 26 big data projects (9.9 billion KRW), 2 cloud projects (6.5 billion KRW), 24 mobile projects (3.1 billion KRW), 13 artificial intelligence projects (3.1 billion KRW), and 3 blockchain projects (0.7 billion KRW).

By institution, Seoul City is responsible for 355 projects (156.2 billion KRW), 25 autonomous districts for 532 projects (90.2 billion KRW), and investment and affiliated institutions for 158 projects (74.9 billion KRW). By type, there are 72 system construction projects (56.8 billion KRW), 166 computer equipment and solution introduction projects (73.4 billion KRW), and 65 software (S/W) development projects (17.0 billion KRW).

The project ordering period is concentrated in the first quarter. Seoul City plans to order 476 projects, about 46% of the total 1,045 projects, in the first quarter, 108 projects in the second quarter, and 28 projects in the third quarter. Maintenance projects totaling 432 have been implemented since January this year, with orders completed last year, and projects to be implemented in 2022 will be ordered in the second half of this year.

Seoul City analyzed that this informatization investment will create 3,245 jobs. This figure is converted using the employment inducement coefficient from the Bank of Korea. The employment inducement coefficient refers to the number of jobs directly and indirectly created when producing goods worth 1 billion KRW. According to the '2018 Input-Output Table' published by the Bank of Korea last year, the employment inducement coefficient for all industries was 10.1 persons.

Major smart city projects include ‘Establishment of Public WiFi throughout Seoul City,’ ‘IoT City Development,’ and ‘S-Map Platform Advancement.’ Through the ‘Establishment of Public WiFi throughout Seoul City’ project, Seoul City plans to install an additional 6,790 public WiFi units this year following last year’s efforts to guarantee citizens’ basic communication rights. Additionally, the ‘IoT City Development’ project aims to establish a data collection and utilization infrastructure for urban phenomena throughout the city and expand citizen-experienced services. The ‘S-Map Platform Advancement’ project will provide various services combining virtual Seoul and city administration content, such as cultural heritage, tourism, Hanyangdoseong (Seoul City Wall), and alleyways.

Seoul City will also invest 11.7 billion KRW in non-face-to-face projects in the COVID-19 era by adding interactive real-time video education methods to the ‘Lifelong Learning Portal Advancement’ project and converting face-to-face Seoul statistical surveys to non-face-to-face online surveys through the ‘Seoul Statistical Integrated Platform Construction’ project. Other plans include advancing and expanding the next-generation work management system for internal administration improvement, next-generation university informatization construction projects, and the first phase of the enterprise resource planning system construction project. To convert the Seoul Data Center into a public cloud center with enhanced security and facility conditions, the ‘Seoul Data Center Development Direction ISP’ will be conducted, and the ‘Information Resource Integrated Management Construction’ project will continue to promote the integration of Seoul City’s information resources by introducing equipment such as virtualized servers.

Lee Won-mok, Director of Smart City Policy, said, “We are currently facing a massive industrial ecosystem change called the 4th Industrial Revolution and changes in citizens’ daily lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” adding, “We will do our best to apply the latest smart technologies timely and appropriately to enhance citizen safety and quality of life.”

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