Sejong City to cooperate with Northern Ireland in smart city, cybersecurity

South Korea's Sejong Special Self-Governing City will pursue economic exchange with Northern Ireland and cooperation in cybersecurity research with Queen's University Belfast.

The city government of the country's administrative hub on Wednesday said Sejong Technopark and Invest Northern Ireland (NI) signed a business agreement at the latter's headquarters in Belfast. Invest NI is a public agency that promotes economic development in and attraction of trade and investment to the British territory.

Both sides will build a smart city by forming long-term cooperative relations between related companies, help the overseas activities of startups and small and medium companies, and devise joint research programs.

In addition, Sejong recently signed a similar deal in cybersecurity with Queen's University Belfast, with the latter's vice president Chris Johnson and Kim Young, vice president of Korea University-Sejong, attending the ceremony.

Under their accord, both sides will prepare conferences on cybersecurity topics like post-quantum cryptography, cybersecurity technology, and the HackTheon Sejong International University Students' Cyber Security Competition & Conference. Queen's University is a prestigious British university founded in 1845. Its government-run Centre for Secure Information Technologies conducts cybersecurity research.

Northern Ireland is the world's lone region where goods can be freely traded between the UK and European Union member countries, with over 1,200 global companies based there. More than 70% of new investors choose to reinvest there.

"We will continue our cooperative relationship by actively utilizing the technological strengths possessed by Northern Ireland," Sejong's Vice Mayor for Economy Lee Seung-won said.

Write to Ho-Beom Lim at lhb@hankyung.com