The first national smart city pilot project in Korea, in an area of 2,743,000 square meters will be in Sejong City (세종) as bidding competition by local Korean companies has already begun.
According to Korea Herald, “The successful bidder will work on this 2.5 trillion won ($2.1 billion) project and the companies that already placed bids include groups led by LG CNS and KT-Hyundai Motor consortiums. The KT-Hyundai Motor consortium includes their affiliates such as Hyundai Engineering & Construction. The consortium led by LG CNS includes LG U+, LG Electronics, KB Financial Group and Shinhan Financial Group. This consortium also includes IT firms such as CJ OliveNetworks and Naver Business Platform”
The new smart city will be divided into three areas, one for startups, one for established companies and one for residences. The city will be connected via high-speed internet and a 5G connection to support and enable technologies and activities in the following sectors: Smart mobility, Healthcare and remote medical services, Edutech and remote learning, Energy saving, Digital governance, startups and R&D labs, non-contact delivery services.
The next national smart city project will be in Busan, the southern port city of South Korea. The project in Busan will mainly focus on renewable, green energy technologies, water technologies and robotics. The bidding for Busan smart city project will open on October 2020. More local smart cities project will follow by 70 cities and counties in South Korea.
The smart city projects in South Korea are great opportunities for foreign companies and startups who wish to test and commercialize their technologies in the fields of drones, 5G network, blockchain, robots, AI, autonomous vehicles, IoT devices and more. We recommend to identify the right Korean partners that can be related or already involved in these projects, as mentioned above, building a good communication channel and developing partnerships. Another working model is to join or form new consortiums with local companies.
