Korean-style smart city to be introduced in Ukraine's Uman

The South Korean government has decided to support the development of a smart city in Uman located in central Ukraine. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on Thursday that Uman, along with seven other cities across the world, has been selected for the "K-City Network" project this year.

The K-City Network, which began in 2020, aims to support the establishment of smart city plans by foreign governments and promote the overseas verification of smart solutions developed by Korean companies. This year, the project was divided into planning-based and verification-based categories, and eight cities were selected through open bidding.

In the planning-based category, support will be provided for the development of smart city master plans initiated by foreign governments. Uman, Indonesia's future capital Nusantara, Badr City in Egypt and Aghdam in Azerbaijan were chosen for this program, which provides support of 300-500 million won ($232,000-387,000) per project.

In the Indonesian new capital, support will be provided for a preliminary feasibility study to establish a smart city control center. The Korean ministry stated that this support will pave the way for Korean companies to enter the smart city project in Indonesia's future capital.

The verification-based category aims to provide opportunities for Korean companies to demonstrate their smart city technologies and products in overseas cities. It also provides support of 300-500 million won per project. Rangpur in Bangladesh, Haiphong in Vietnam, Sakarya in Turkey and Banyumas in Indonesia were selected for this category.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plans to promote South Korea's smart city technologies and support networking opportunities for Korean companies through the World Smart City Expo, which will be held in September this year.

Write to Oh-Sang Yoo at osyoo@hankyung.com