Training Program for Guayaquil City, Ecuador
Sharing Experiences in Citizen-Centric Smart Policies and Smart City Infrastructure Development in Guayaquil City
[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 4th that it provided a two-week online training program on ‘policy secrets’ to public officials of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest commercial city and the Pacific export-import trade gateway.
This training was part of the ‘government ministry proposed project,’ in which the government supports the budget for official development assistance (ODA) projects proposed by Seoul City. The ‘Seoul Policy Export Project Team,’ a dedicated organization for exporting Seoul’s excellent policies, and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) collaborated on this initiative.
The training focused on policy areas of greatest interest to Guayaquil’s public officials. Lectures covered policies and Seoul’s accumulated experience and specific best practices related to integrated platforms such as ▲ smart city urban planning ▲ urban data management ▲ smart disaster safety measures ▲ Smart Seoul Map.
As the final task of the two-week training, Guayaquil officials directly developed a comprehensive plan for building a smart city in Guayaquil, strengthening their practical smart city policy planning capabilities. Twenty-eight public officials from Guayaquil’s Urban Planning Bureau, Infrastructure Bureau, and other departments participated. Seoul’s Economic Policy Office, Digital Policy Office, Climate and Environment Headquarters, and SH Corporation cooperated organically to vividly convey Seoul’s world-class experience and secrets in smart city policy formulation to Guayaquil officials.
The ‘policy training’ for Guayaquil public officials will continue for three years. This year, the first year, the training was conducted online, and from next year, Guayaquil officials will visit Seoul to explore specific cooperation plans for smart infrastructure projects such as integrated data platform and integrated data center construction.
Luis Mediavilla, Director of Organizational Management of Guayaquil, Ecuador, who participated in this capacity-building training, expressed his expectations, saying, “Through this training, I hope to learn Seoul’s excellent smart city policies and receive much help in realizing Guayaquil’s smart city vision and planning. I also hope this will be an opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Seoul and Guayaquil.”
Since 2006, Seoul City has been promoting the overseas expansion of its excellent policies and established the dedicated Seoul Policy Export Project Team in 2016. So far, it has shared and disseminated various excellent policies such as transportation, urban railroads, and smart cities to 66 overseas cities (institutions) in 40 countries, enhancing Seoul’s city brand value while supporting the development of underdeveloped cities. Based on this, it also supports the overseas expansion of domestic private companies.
Lee Hye-young, Director of International Cooperation at Seoul City, said, “Exporting Seoul’s excellent policies is a process of sharing accumulated experience and spreading best practices to other cities. We will strive to perform Seoul’s role as a global leading city and promote win-win city diplomacy linked to the overseas expansion of our private companies.”
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