Smart City Technology Cooperation Program Call for Proposals... 111 Submissions from 39 Countries Received

Separate Operation of Secretariat by Business Type This Year... Enhancing Expertise Further

Results of the Smart City Technology Cooperation Program Application Submission.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo Gang-wook] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 27th that a total of 111 proposals were received from 39 countries following the international call for applications for the ‘K-City Network Global Cooperation Program’ held from February 18 to April 20.

The number of participating countries increased by 16 compared to last year, and the number of projects rose by 31 (38.8%), indicating growing overseas interest in this program.

This year, support will be provided for ▲smart city development-type planning (basic concept, master plan, feasibility study, etc.), ▲smart solution-type planning (transportation, platform, environment, etc.) in about 11 overseas cities, and newly introduced ▲smart solution-type overseas demonstration projects by Korean companies.

Through smart city development-type and solution-type planning, smart city cooperation projects with foreign countries will be discovered to share and disseminate excellent technologies from each country, and through smart solution-type overseas demonstrations, Korean smart city technologies will be directly applied to overseas cities to establish a foundation for overseas expansion.

In particular, for smart solution-type overseas demonstrations, Korean companies possessing commercialized solutions will submit applications after prior consultation with overseas governments, which is expected to facilitate smoother application and demonstration of Korean technologies.

Also, unlike last year, separate K-City Network operation secretariats will be established for each project type (city development type: Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation (KIND), solution type: Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA)) to enhance expertise from project solicitation to actual research and demonstration.

Looking at the results of this call by region and country, the New Southern region submitted 35 proposals from 10 countries, the New Northern region 33 proposals from 8 countries, and the Latin America region 19 proposals from 6 countries. Notably, this year’s call saw new participation from Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, etc.), the Middle East (Jordan, Iran, etc.), and advanced countries such as the United States, France, and Spain, expanding the scope of target countries.

Smart City Technology Cooperation Program by Application Type

By type, the smart city development type received 57 proposals from 24 countries, ranging from establishing smart city development roadmaps for entire cities (Vietnam, the Philippines, Botswana, etc.) to satellite city construction (Uzbekistan), innovation development zone development (Belarus), and industrial complex development (Paraguay), among various requests.

The smart solution planning type received 40 proposals from 16 countries. Requests for planning and feasibility studies were made in diverse fields including transportation (13 proposals) such as intelligent transportation system introduction, urban management (4 proposals) such as urban control center advancement and integrated urban systems, environment (5 proposals) such as smart parks and environmental management systems, and safety (5 proposals) such as smart crime prevention.

The smart solution overseas demonstration type received 14 proposals from 12 countries. Requests for planning and feasibility studies were made in various fields including transportation (3 proposals) such as smart parking and smart streetlights, smart water management (4 proposals), safety (2 proposals) such as disaster management and safety services, and telecommunications (2 proposals) such as communication infrastructure construction.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will collect opinions on government-to-government cooperation status such as memorandums of understanding (MOUs) from overseas diplomatic missions and related ministries regarding the submitted projects’ prospects and potential for cooperation with Korean companies. Subsequently, a separate evaluation committee composed of internal and external experts will be convened, and the final selection results will be announced on June 23.

Choi Im-rak, Director of Urban Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "The results of this year’s K-City Network call show that overseas countries have shown strong interest in the Korean-style smart city despite the COVID-19 situation," adding, "We will ensure that important and urgent projects for foreign countries and projects that our companies can excel in are selected."

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