KOTRA Publishes Smart City Overseas Expansion Strategy Report

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] KOTRA published the "Smart City Overseas Expansion Strategy Report" on the 6th, analyzing △smart city trends and policies △promising smart city projects △strategies for entering smart city markets in four countries: Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Turkey.

To support the overseas expansion of domestic smart city-related companies, KOTRA has been operating Smart City Cooperation Centers at its trade offices in Bangkok, Jakarta, Hanoi, and Istanbul since last year in collaboration with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. KOTRA stated that the report contains information collected by the cooperation centers from last year until March of this year.

According to the report, all four countries?Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Turkey?are focusing on pilot projects led by local governments based on the federal government's basic smart city policies. In particular, these four countries surveyed are concentrating on top-down smart city infrastructure development, making sectors such as transportation, e-government, smart grids, and safety and disaster prevention solutions promising for overseas expansion.

Furthermore, to enter these markets, it is advantageous to offer package solutions combining multiple solutions rather than single solutions, and considering that the customers are governments, entry strategies involving cooperation with local partners were suggested.

KOTRA plans to further strengthen this year's smart city overseas expansion support project in collaboration with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. This year, the cooperation centers will expand from four to five countries, and online seminars and video consultations through overseas KOTRA trade offices will be conducted throughout the year.

Kim Sangmook, Head of KOTRA's Innovation Growth Headquarters, said, "We hope the Smart City Cooperation Centers will become a foothold for the overseas expansion of Korean-style smart cities," adding, "We will continuously support our companies to participate in promising local smart city projects discovered through the cooperation centers." This report can be downloaded for free from the Overseas Market News website.