Seoul sees export growth in promotion of smart cities

SEOUL - Korea is to expand co-operation overseas in the construction of smart cities, which it has identified as a promising export sector for the future.

Korea’s Vice Minister for Land and Infrastructure, Kim Kyung-hwan, said Korea should actively foster smart cities because they are considered a platform for the knowledge-based sector of the economy. The Government has created a "K-smart City" export promotion team to drive the concept.

“In regard to on-going projects like those in Kuwait and Bolivia, we need to engage in negotiations with partner countries to include as much Korean smart city technology as possible,” Kim said, emphasising the importance of actively promoting Korea’s success in smart cities overseas.

Smart cities are one of nine national strategic projects identified by the Korean Government in August as key potential areas of future economic growth.

Since President Park Geun-hye’s visits to the Middle East in March last year, the Government has signed a MoU with Kuwait to build a smart city in South Saad Al-Abdullah. The Korea Land & Housing Corporation will begin construction in 2018.

In March this year, the Korean consortium, Sunjin-Pyunghwa Engineering, won a tender to design a new smart suburb in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.