[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Gwangyang City announced on the 29th that it has been finally selected for the ‘2020 Smart Town Challenge Contest Project’ conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (Korea Land and Housing Corporation).
In January, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport called for the ‘2020 Smart Town Challenge Preliminary Project’ nationwide to local governments, and after reviewing project proposals and presentation evaluations, four local governments including Gwangyang City, which proposed the ‘Clean Breath, Comfortable Rest Smart Town Kumho Creation,’ were finally selected.
The ‘Smart Town Challenge’ project supports a budget of 300 million KRW for establishing a basic plan to derive solutions to urban problems through living labs (experiments in daily life) based on citizen participation, and after follow-up evaluations, provides a project budget of about 2 billion KRW for one year to build optimized solutions.
The selected ‘Clean Breath, Comfortable Rest Smart Town Kumho Creation’ will introduce specialized smart city services in Kumho-dong, where air pollution and traffic problems are caused by the concentration of industrial complexes in the Gwangyang Bay area.
The services to be introduced include ▲building a citizen participation-based smart eco platform ▲shared e-mobility ▲smart clean bus stops ▲mobile collection system for large waste ▲smart trash bins, contributing to solving environmental and traffic problems and enhancing citizens’ convenience.
Jung Hyun-bok, mayor of Gwangyang City, expressed gratitude for being selected for the contest project, saying, “Gwangyang City can now actively promote smart city projects created through collaboration among citizens, companies, and local governments.”
He added, “We will continue to accelerate the construction of smart cities so that citizens can enjoy a convenient and pleasant life by providing citizen-customized services reflecting regional characteristics.”
Meanwhile, Gwangyang City, which was the first in Jeonnam to receive approval for a ‘Smart City Plan’ from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in January, secured 300 million KRW in national funds through this preliminary project selection. After completing the preliminary project process, including gathering citizens’ opinions and expert consultations starting in June to establish a specialized solution plan, the project is scheduled to begin in 2021 depending on the follow-up evaluation results.
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