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Launching a new smart city cooperation platform for ASEAN and ROK
Ministers and vice ministers from the ten ASEAN member states and the ROK agreed to cooperate on smart city and to keep discussions through the ASEAN-ROK Ministerial Meeting on Smart City at its inaugural meeting on November 25 in Busan.
A new ministerial meeting to foster smart city collaboration between Korea and ASEAN was held on November 25 in Busan, Korea. Hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) of Korea in association with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Committee on New Southern Policy, ‘ASEAN-ROK Ministerial Meeting on Smart City’ raised the hope that the new meeting will give boost to business exchanges and partnerships in the smart city field.
Held in conjunction with the ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit, the ASEAN-ROK Ministerial Meeting on Smart City (hereinafter the ‘Ministerial Meeting’) is the first meeting organized between ASEAN and the ROK in the smart city area. Seven Ministers and eight vice ministers from Korea and ASEAN countries in charge of smart city along with the ASEAN Secretary General discussed urban problems, shared solutions to the issues and affirmed their determination to continue collaboration in the area.
Minister Buddhipongse PUNNAKANTA, of Digital Economy and Society of Thailand, who served as the co-chair of the meeting along with Minister Kim Hyun-mee of MOLIT expressed his support for ASEAN-ROK smart city collaboration.
Under the ‘New Southern Policy’ of and its vision of creating a people-oriented, peaceful and prosperous community with ASEAN, the Korean government has promoted its partnerships with ASEAN countries in diverse areas including infrastructure and smart city.
During the Ministerial Meeting, ASEAN countries showed strong interest in pursuing concrete cooperation programs and projects with Korea especially in the fields such as new township development and ICT infrastructure that Korea has had abundant experiences for decades.
In its presentation, MOLIT summarized the outcomes of ASEAN-ROK smart city cooperation so far and proposed four measures to foster the collaboration further with special focus given to the four areas of urban development, safety, transport and water management.
First measure for collaboration is ‘Korea Smart City Open Network(K-SCON)’, which is a collaborative network for smart city development. After its launch this year, four ASEAN countries will be selected through an open process and provided with funding for master plan or pre-feasibility study development for smart city projects. Once completed, Korea hopes to develop concrete projects out of such studies.
Second vehicle for cooperation implementation is ‘Global Plant, Infrastructure and Smart City Fund (PIS Fund).’ Out of 1.5 billion USD to be raised, 300 million USD will be invested in smart city projects in ASEAN.
Moreover, smart city cooperation centers will be set up initially in four ASEAN countries to discover joint projects and strengthen G2G and B2B networking with the host countries.
Last measure revealed at the Ministerial Meeting is the invitational training program for ASEAN officials. Under the program, training courses designed to develop capacity on smart city will be provided to share Korea’s urban development experience and smart ICT solutions.
Another event planned during the Ministerial Meeting was signing of three MOUs and LOI between public organizations and local governments of Korea and ASEAN. Meanwhile, two MOUs were concluded between MOLIT and its Singaporean and Brunei counterparts on the sidelines of the summit meetings held with the countries during the Commemorative Summit.
Including the achievements during the Ministerial Meeting and the summit meetings, ASEAN and Korea have built 23 cooperative relationships on smart city development since the launch of the ASEAN Smart Cities Network (ASCN) in 2018. These achievements seem to be the result of the Korean government’s proactive response. The government created a public-private task force for ASCN cooperation involving the Presidential Committee on New Southern Policy, MOLIT and four government ministries and 10 entities from the public and private sectors.
MOLIT Minister Kim Hyun-mee says, “Smart city is growing popular in ASEAN as it presents solutions to many urban problems afflicting the region such as concentration of population in cities and bigger impact from natural disasters due to such population density. Given the high level of attention, Korea needs to provide a platform to exchange its policies and technologies with ASEAN.” The minister also added, “That is why the inauguration of the Ministerial Meeting today is meaningful. Through this new channel, Korea will deepen its smart city cooperation with ASEAN for mutual prosperity while giving Korean companies opportunities to expand to new markets in the region.”
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