City Challenge, Bucheon, Daejeon, Incheon
Town Challenge, Tongyeong, Seongdong, Suyeong, Gongju·Buyeo
[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] Seven regions have been finally selected as target sites for the main project of the 'Smart Challenge,' which supports companies, citizens, and local governments in solving various urban problems together.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 16th, as a result of this year's Smart Challenge main project evaluation, among the 10 regions selected as preliminary project support targets last year, three regions?Bucheon-si in Gyeonggi, Daejeon Metropolitan City, and Incheon Metropolitan City?were selected for the City Challenge, and four regions?Tongyeong-si in Gyeongnam, Seongdong-gu in Seoul, Suyeong-gu in Busan, and Gongju and Buyeo in Chungnam?were selected for the Town Challenge.
The Smart Challenge is a smart solution construction project created jointly by companies, citizens, and local governments to solve urban problems. It is promoted in three types according to the project scale: City (large), Town (medium), and Solution (small).
The City Challenge is a project to build a comprehensive solution that can solve problems throughout the city based on ideas from private companies. In the first year, demonstration costs of 1.5 billion KRW are supported for the selected company and local government consortium, and after a follow-up evaluation, those with excellent performance receive main project funding of 20 to 25 billion KRW annually for three years.
The Town Challenge is a project that derives problem-solving methods through living labs based on citizen participation and builds specialized solutions optimized for certain areas within the city. In the first year, 300 million KRW each is supported for the local government and citizens to jointly establish plans, and after a follow-up evaluation, main project funding of 2 to 4 billion KRW annually for one year is provided.
For the three regions?Suwon, Changwon, and Gwangju?that were not finally selected as project sites this time, support measures to disseminate and supply highly innovative items among various solutions presented in their respective project plans will also be actively considered.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced a new Smart Challenge preliminary project on the 17th of last month. A total of 18 projects will be selected by the end of April, and efforts will continue to discover new models for urban smartification.
Seongho Bae, head of the Urban Economy Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, explained, "If various innovative services that confirmed their performance through demonstration last year spread throughout the city, more people will be able to enjoy the benefits of smart cities. We will focus our policy capabilities to ensure sustainable operation based on concrete business models."
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