Creating a 'Smart Island'... Experts from Various Fields Join Forces

Korea Island Promotion Agency Launches 'Smart Island Initiative Forum'

The best experts from various fields are joining forces to build a ‘Smart Island’.

The Korea Island Development Institute (KIDI, Director Oh Dong-ho) announced on the 18th that it launched the ‘Smart Island Initiative Forum’ and held a commemorative conference at Oakwood Premier in Songdo, Incheon.

The launch of this forum marks the first step toward building a so-called ‘Smart Island’ that smartly solves the problems of island regions. A public platform was established to facilitate a paradigm shift toward a Smart Island development strategy.

The forum launch commemorative conference, held under the theme ‘Smart Islands Built Smartly, Sustainable Islands,’ was attended by over 100 participants including domestic and international academic experts, central government and local government officials, members of the National Assembly, related organizations, and island residents.

The conference proceeded in the following order: ▲opening ceremony and forum launch declaration ▲keynote speech by Director Oh Dong-ho titled ‘Islands Connecting the Future, Islands Going Global’ ▲presentations by Smart Island experts ▲and a roundtable discussion.

In particular, Smart Island experts covered various topics such as ▲the value of spatial smartification (Professor Cho Seong-su, Hanbat National University) ▲excellent cases of smart villages (Senior Researcher Song Kyung-bin, Korea Intelligent Information Society Agency) ▲making islands smart and new, Smart Island (Associate Researcher Kim Jae-ho, Korea Island Development Institute) ▲and directions for building Smart Islands through regionally innovative regulatory reforms (Researcher Choi Hae-ok, Science and Technology Policy Institute).

In the subsequent roundtable, former President Lee Jae-young of the Korea Regional Information Development Institute chaired a lively discussion. Panelists included ▲Professor Park Sung-hyun of Mokpo National University ▲Director Cho Young-tae of the Urban Research Division at LH Land and Housing Institute ▲Team Leader Choi Dong-wook of the Space Mobility Division, Jeju Province ▲CEO Seon Jae-won of ‘Namanui Doctor’ ▲and Kim Dae-won, Smart City Team Leader at Samsung Electronics.

Through the forum, the Korea Island Development Institute aims to share the achievements of its Smart Island research so far and create a new vision. Along with this, it plans to improve the quality of life for island residents and pursue sustainable development through digital transformation and the establishment of smart infrastructure in island regions.

Oh Dong-ho, Director of the Korea Island Development Institute, said, “I hope that Korea’s beautiful islands will transform smartly and become future growth engines,” adding, “I hope the discussions from this forum will become a beacon illuminating the future of islands.”

Meanwhile, the ‘Smart Island Construction Strategy’ is a 2023 policy research project of the Korea Island Development Institute. This year, research is underway to develop a spatial strategy diagnostic system (ISLAND-MBTI) for Smart Island model development.