[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 17th that it will start the international public contest for the 'K-City Network' project from the 18th to discover government-to-government (G2G) smart city cooperation projects and support the overseas expansion of Korean companies.
The 'K-City Network' project was launched for the first time last year. The first international contest received great response with 80 applications from 23 countries worldwide. Currently, cooperation is ongoing with 12 cities in 11 countries including Indonesia, Peru, and Turkey, which were selected at that time.
This year, the project plans to support the establishment of smart city development plans and smart solution-type plans in about 11 overseas cities wishing to develop Korean-style smart cities.
The smart city development type is a project that supports the establishment of plans such as master plans and feasibility studies to apply smart solutions to overseas urban development projects.
The smart solution plan type proposes smart solutions to solve major urban issues such as transportation, environment, and energy in the respective cities, and supports the establishment of construction and operation plans.
Starting this year, a new type of support for overseas demonstration of smart solutions will be introduced to actively support the overseas expansion of excellent solutions developed by Korean companies and commercialized through projects such as the Smart Challenge project.
Unlike existing overseas urban development support projects, the K-City Network project plans to secure momentum for overseas projects by establishing a cooperative system with the partner country's government, public sector, and companies, and jointly managing the project by both governments.
For public-private partnership (PPP) projects with business feasibility, efforts will be actively made to link them to this project and negotiate follow-up financial support with multilateral development banks (MDBs) such as the PIS Fund, the World Bank (WB), and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The project will be announced on the 18th. After a two-month application period until April 20, selections will be made by the end of June, and the project will be carried out until the first half of next year considering the scope and difficulty of tasks and COVID-19 conditions.
Detailed information about the contest can be found on the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport website and the Smart City Comprehensive Portal.
Choi Imrak, Director of Urban Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, explained, "The K-City Network project will serve as a policy tool to transfer our smart city development experience tailored to global smart city demand and infrastructure conditions, and support opportunities for domestic smart city companies to pioneer overseas markets."
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