Selected Innovative Best Practices Including Utilization of Highway Idle Land and Maritime Drone Delivery

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Selects 5 Best Cases of Proactive Administration and Regulatory Innovation in Q1

[Asia Economy Reporter Kangwook Cho] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 25th that it selected five outstanding cases of proactive administration and regulatory innovation in the first quarter of this year, including 'Expansion of logistics infrastructure using idle highway land.'

To address the shortage of logistics facilities, the Ministry is promoting a project to utilize 34 sites near highway interchanges (IC) and junctions (JCT), as well as abandoned roads and former service area sites, as logistics facility sites.

Before full-scale promotion, among the candidate sites, a site near Giheung IC, located at a geographical key point in the metropolitan area with high industry demand, was selected as a pilot project site, and it was planned as a private investment project (BOT) to utilize private sector business ideas.

In the first quarter, the project implementer was selected and a special purpose company (SPC) was established. Given the site characteristics, such as ease of installing access roads, operation is expected to be possible in the first half of 2023.

Furthermore, in the second half of the year, a comprehensive plan including demand-customized business models for logistics companies, considering site conditions and regional characteristics, will be established for other candidate sites.

The 'Maritime Drone Paid Delivery' project was also selected as an outstanding case of proactive administration.

The Ministry has supported the discovery of drone business models through measures such as easing capital requirements for drone businesses, establishing dedicated departments, and creating a regulatory reform roadmap.

As a result, the private sector discovered and proposed a goods delivery business connecting land and sea by drones, and after safety reviews by related agencies, a business registration certificate was issued in February, enabling the full-scale paid delivery business.

Currently, a project delivering lightweight items such as documents, disinfectants, and masks needed by crew members to domestic ships anchored about 2 km offshore from Busan port using drones has been actively underway since last month.

Using drones reduces the delivery time from 40 minutes to 5 minutes compared to traditional ship transport, and costs decrease from 400,000 won to about 50,000 won.

Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) announced on the 1st that it has started moving in from the 30th of last month by supplying the youth-tailored shared housing "Anam Saenghwal" to stabilize housing for university students and young people. Despite its excellent location, a downtown tourist hotel that had been vacant for a long time due to the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was remodeled. The photo shows Anam Saenghwal on that day. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

The 'hotel and commercial building remodeling' project, one type of housing supply project that provides housing in urban areas, was also cited as an innovation case.

The Ministry piloted remodeling a tourist hotel in Anam-dong, Seoul, into housing for young people, and plans to remodel hotels and commercial buildings in other areas to supply housing for single-person households.

In addition, projects such as establishing an emergency transport system for COVID-19 vaccines and the rapid installation of speed enforcement cameras in dangerous zones were also selected as outstanding cases of proactive administration and regulatory innovation.

A Ministry official stated, "We plan to actively promote regulatory innovation and proactive administration to respond to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 and the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and we will monitor to ensure that the selected outstanding cases are stably established in the field."

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