Creating AI and Data-Centric City... 4th Comprehensive Smart City Plan Confirmed

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Finalizes 4th Comprehensive Smart City Plan for 2024-2028
Also Establishes Strategy to Promote K-Smart City Overseas Expansion

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport finalized the 4th Comprehensive Smart City Plan for 2024-2028, focusing on creating AI (Artificial Intelligence) and data-centered cities, following the review by the National Smart City Committee held on the 30th of last month. The 4th Comprehensive Smart City Plan is the highest-level statutory plan in the smart city sector, established every five years in accordance with Article 4 of the 'Smart City Act.'

This plan presents the vision of "Implementing a smart city of coexistence and leap connecting cities and people" and proposes four major strategies: "Spreading sustainable spatial models," "Building AI and data-centered urban infrastructure," "Creating a private sector-friendly industrial ecosystem," and "Activating overseas expansion of K-Smart Cities." The key details are as follows.

In the "Sustainable Spatial Model" sector, an environment for the rapid and economical spread of smart solutions will be created through the development of open-source-based solutions linked with data hubs distributed to metropolitan local governments. Additionally, the use of funds (at least 35% of the total project cost) for climate crisis response and digital inclusion is mandated, and the smart solution dissemination projects will focus on cities at risk of extinction.

In the "AI and Data-Centered Urban Infrastructure" sector, the data hub will be advanced based on AI and digital twins to improve the efficiency of urban operation and management. Data will be standardized for urban data utilization and linkage, and guidelines for data use and information protection management plans will also be established.

To create a "Private Sector-Friendly Industrial Ecosystem," smart city specialized complexes will be established in regions with high potential to grow into smart city industrial hubs, where companies can conduct research and demonstrations together. Various corporate support measures will also be promoted, including restructuring the convergence alliance, establishing standardization cooperation systems, improving the regulatory sandbox system, providing two-way matching services between local governments and companies, and fostering innovation partnerships between large corporations and small or startup companies.

For "K-Smart City Overseas Expansion," pre-consulting will be introduced into the K-City Network project to discover overseas urban development projects and support promising investment project development, pursuing a strategy of selection and concentration. The K-City Network refers to the government-to-government cooperation-based smart city overseas business discovery and local market entry initiative, which has planned 41 smart cities in 23 countries and supported overseas demonstrations since 2020. Customized services will be supported and exported to countries with high smart city demand such as Vietnam and Indonesia, and international cooperation will be expanded with leading countries like the EU and the United States.

At the National Smart City Committee meeting, regulatory exemptions were granted for Samsung Seoul Hospital Consortium’s "Real-time Monitoring Equipped Autonomous Wheelchair Patient Transport Service" and Daegu Transportation Corporation’s "Daegu-type DRT Operation Demonstration," providing opportunities for innovative technologies to be tested free from regulations.

Jung Woo-jin, Director of Urban Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, stated, "With the comprehensive plan, which will serve as a compass for smart city policies over the next five years, we will focus on promoting the overseas expansion of excellent K-Smart City technologies and revitalizing the industrial ecosystem based on this plan."