LG CNS to design smart city system for Indonesia's new capital

South Korea's LG CNS will provide a smart city design for Indonesia's new capital of Nusantara.

The company on Tuesday said it signed the day before in Bali a memorandum of understanding on smart city cooperation with the Nusantara Capital City Authority of Indonesia. The signing ceremony was attended by LG CNS CEO Kim Young-shub and authority head Bambang Susantono.

Under construction in a jungle of East Kalimantan on Borneo Island, the massive project seeks to build a smart city by 2045 covering 2,560 square km, or four times the size of Seoul, with investment of $35 billion (46.4 trillion won).

LG CNS will provide the concept design for smart services for the authority, which oversees basic design for services like land use planning, traffic signal systems and housing construction in Nusantara.

The company will also set up a digital smart service featuring artificial intelligence (AI), data, cloud and digital twin based on the new capital's basic design. It is working on a blueprint for smart cities such those based on AI or specializing in mobility.

The project's three stages are design, engineering, procurement and construction, operation and maintenance that follow the designation of the smart service concept design.

Indonesia has benchmarked Korea's administrative capital of Sejong for the Nusantara project and shown high interest in LG CNS' digital transformation capacity such as in urban design, construction and operations as evidenced by Sejong and Busan, the company added.

Through the MOU, LG CNS said it expects LG Group's participation in the project and will maximize synergy through joints efforts with affiliates like LG Electronics, LG Energy Solutions and LG Uplus.

LG CNS CEO Kim said, "Based on our company's digital transformation technology and smart city capacity, we will make a case for exporting our business model for a super-size smart city and take a big step toward becoming a leading global company in smart city operations."

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com