[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Kang-wook] Ten cities, including Yeongwol-gun in Gangwon Province and Seongnam-si in Gyeonggi Province, have been selected as 'Drone Demonstration Cities' for this year.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 23rd that it has selected 10 'Drone Demonstration Cities' to implement new drone services in urban areas and 13 'Drone Regulatory Sandbox' operators to support the commercialization of excellent technologies.
The Ministry has been conducting the Drone Demonstration City contest since 2019 and the Regulatory Sandbox contest since 2018 to support the urban utilization of new drone technologies and the demonstration of excellent technologies.
This year, the selected 'Drone Demonstration Cities' are Yeongwol-gun in Gangwon Province, Seongnam-si in Gyeonggi Province, Gyeongnam Province, Gwangju Metropolitan City, Suseong-gu in Daegu, Daejeon City, Sejong City, Ulsan City, Jinan-gun in Jeonbuk Province, and Seosan-si in Chungnam Province, totaling 10 locations.
Each local government selected as a Drone Demonstration City will receive a budget of around 1 billion KRW to demonstrate customized projects according to the characteristics of each city.
In particular, from this year, when selecting Drone Demonstration Cities, the Ministry has encouraged linking with 'Drone Special Free Zones' so that drone services requested by each local government can be freely demonstrated without regulations such as flight approval and safety certification, the Ministry explained.
Along with this, the Ministry also selected 13 drone companies as 'Drone Regulatory Sandbox' operators to actively support the early commercialization and practical use of excellent drone technologies and plans to promote various demonstration and system improvement projects together.
The selected companies are Ubifai, LIG Nex1, Peacequare, Narma, XDrone, Rainbow Lab, Doosan Digital Innovation, Nears Lab, Carta, Rehigh, Smarti, GTel Global, and Korea Legislation Research Institute.
Regulatory Sandbox projects include commercialization of pizza delivery services linked with a global pizza chain, advancement of drone protection systems, autonomous indoor flight, drone operation in adverse weather conditions, and demonstration of blood delivery to island regions.
The demonstration support cost is around 100 million to 300 million KRW per consortium. Additionally, related regulatory improvement plans will be prepared based on the demonstration results.
Earlier, on the 21st, the Ministry and the Aviation Safety Technology Institute held a signing ceremony for this year's Drone Demonstration Cities and Regulatory Sandbox projects at the Sejong Convention Center.
Yoon Jin-hwan, Director of Aviation Policy at the Ministry, said, "Through various policy supports such as demonstration support projects like Drone Demonstration Cities, regulatory innovation, research and development, and overseas expansion support, the drone utilization market is expanding and drone companies are growing."
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