Deputy Minister Sohn Tae-rak of the Housing and Land Office at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT).

Renowned global geospatial information experts, industry people and working-level government officials will descend on the The-K Hotel in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, to participate in the Smart Geospatial Expo 2015 that will open Sept. 15 for a three-day run. 

The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and Deputy Minister Sohn, Tae-rak of the Housing and Land Office at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) in which he spoke of the current status and prospects of the Korean and global geospatial information industries. 

Question: Will you tell our readers about the significance of the Smart Geospatial Expo 2015?

Answer: The Smart Geospatial Expo 2015, the eight rendition, is the nation’s biggest geospatial information exposition in which expert and business leaders from Korean and foreign geospatial information industry, academia, government and other related circles assemble.

The Digital Geospatial Expo made its debut in 2008. In 2012, the name was changed to the Smart Geospatial Expo to live up to a smart environment, creating new value in the wake of the evolution of geospatial information thanks to the development of science technology and ICT.

The Smart Geospatial Expo, marking the 8th expo, has moved from strength to strength, growing into an exhibition-cum-international conference event that attracts geospatial information experts from countries around the world as well as some 30,000 spectators. In particular, exhibitors and participants from industry, academia and research circles will be given opportunities to incubate start-up businesses as the expo is flowing with ideas, technology and business. The exposition will also serve as momentum that is essential for the direct and indirect development of Korean industries and technologies. 

Exploration of Overseas Markets 

Starting this year, the Smart Geospatial Expo will be divided into an international convention and an exhibition, so each can be held biennially. Like previous years, the Smart Geospatial Expo 2015 will invite Korean and foreign renowned geospatial information experts and industry people so they can present the latest information and research outcomes. In particular, foreign administrator and director-general and other working-level government officials in charge of geospatial information, will participate in the Working-Level Forum to flesh out details on the implementation of tasks contained in a joint statement agreed at the High-Level Forum in 2014. 

The Working-Level Forum will be an opportunity for Korean and other participating countries to discuss ways of promoting cooperation. Promising Korean companies may be invited to attend the forum. 

Countries are invited in the Working-Level Forum to help Korean companies seize opportunities to enter them. They are selected among the counties in which Korean companies have launched projects, want to make inroads, or generally have much interest. Cooperation with the invited countries will eventually pave the way for Korean companies to participate in official development assistance (ODA)-initiated projects.

Most of the primary data such as topographies, resources and statistics are geospatial information on the countries’ companies and people who want to enter. Development cooperation mechanisms established via the Smart Geospatial Expo will be a guide to explore diverse business opportunities along with diverse Korean programs. 

A view of the Smart Geospatial Expo 2014.(Photos:MOLIT)

Geospatial Information Experience Programs With Focus on Creative Economy

Some 30 booths, including those of the MOLIT, Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Crop.(LX), Korea Land and Housing Corp.(LH) and Korean major companies, will be operated so the general public can get a glimpse and a better understanding of geospatial information at the expo. In particular, spectators will be given chances to experience unmanned aerial vehicle drones, comparison of virtual reality gadgets, 3D geospatial information convergence technologies, and the latest geospatial information trends. 

Individuals who have ideas on using geospatial information in our daily lives will be invited to participate in a geospatial information utilization contest. It is part of efforts to make the expo a space in which people consider the geospatial information industry as an industry in which he or she can create businesses.

Career Fair Zone will be operated to recruit geospatial information manpower and help youth land jobs. The Zone will introduce the national competency standards (NCS), a new public entity recruit method departing from the conventional ones, and it will be a space for lending a helping hand to youth. 

Q: Will you be more specific about major programs of the expo?

A: Invited Administrator- and Director-General Working-Level Forum Working-Level Forum will be held from Sept. 15 to 17 to discuss the implementation of an online information sharing and invitational educational program, one of the tasks agreed to during last year’s ranking officials’ meeting. First of all, we will hold an information session on Sept. 15 to explain invitational workshops for developing countries in place in Korea, which stood at about 170 as of 2012. I understand that the MOLIT and other related organizations run diverse invitational educational programs, and these will be a precious information for participating working-level officials. We expect the joint explanation session to serve as a good opportunity to grasp the status of countries participating in invitational educational programs.

Jorge A. Munoz, practice manager of the Global Land Unit, World Bank — considered one of the renowned global experts on land administration and land policy — will give a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the expo. 

Under the theme “World Geospatial Information Trends,” the following day, Mr. Munoz, Eom Kyung-Soo, the head of United Nations (UN) Cartographic Section, and other renowned global geospatial information experts will take time to share the latest global geospatial information trends. And each of the participating countries will give a presentation on the status of each country’s geospatial information, and Korean and foreign experts on hand will give tips on how to fix each country’s pending issues and problems. Korean companies will be also invited to participate in the programs, and they will be connected to hold one-on-one business meetings the same afternoon. 

In the afternoon, Korean organizations and companies wanting to explore foreign markets will hold sessions to showcase their technologies to participating countries, and Korean companies will hold business meetings with their target countries. 

On Sept. 17, the final day, Korean state-financed geospatial information practices, including Korea Land Information System(KLIS), will be presented to explain Korea’s efforts to develop geospatial information on a state level. 

Korea will preside over the Working-Level Forum before the closing ceremony to gather views on additional agendas, and to discuss agendas of the minister-level talks of the Smart Geospatial Expo 2016. Regarding the agenda, to be discussed during next year’s ranking officials’ meeting, this year’s Working-Level Forum will deal with problems facing the emerging countries, which may be done in regional levels, and general tasks of mutual concern.

International Conference

On the sidelines of foreign working-level officials’ talks, 14 conferences, large and small, will take place at The-K Seoul Hotel. Some 300 people, including Korean and foreign experts from the geospatial information and Internet of Everything (IOE) sectors will take part. The general public will participate in the 2015 International Conference on Geospatial Information Science (ICGIS). 

True to the theme of reinterpreting geospatial information values to cope with a super-connected society, the ICGIS will deal with the direction of new developments, including geospatial information technology innovation, multidisciplinary convergence business models and ways of promoting collaboration between the public and private sectors, and explore future tasks.

The expo will also coincide with the GIS Forum FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) 2015, which will attract 400 Korean and foreign participants. The expo is expected to promote active exchanges with the annual recurring global event hosted by OSGeo Seoul Chapter. Foreign participants of FOSS4G will likely get a glimpse and a better understanding of the Korean geospatial information industry as well as publicizing Korea’s standing in the field. 

Latest Geospatial Information Publicity Halls

The general public and participants of conferences will be given chances to look at the latest trends and try their hand during the expo. Some 30 booths, including those of the MOLIT, Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Crop.(LX), Korea Land and Housing Corp.(LH) and Korean major companies, will give information on the latest technologies and industrial developments. Promising firms at the Promotion Hall, which have made inroads into foreign markets, and related industry companies will showcase their excellent technologies and talk about the latest issues. Among the technologies on display at the publicity booths will be a 3D stereoscopic technology using a drone, a technology restoring and diagnosing Korean cultural properties, a technology examining the safety of untouchable urban skyscrapers, a technology using Big Data as well as examples of convergence technology, now with fewer uses but with the potential is there if it is combined with other things. 

General spectators at the experience zones will be given a better understanding of the geospatial information industry by experiencing the latest industry gadgets and technology first hand. They will try their hand at virtual reality devices, a drone-connected 360-degress real spatial concept device, the first such one in Korea, and PC/mobile-based diverse VR gadgets. The latest Drone games and simulators will hit the Experience Zone. 

Q: Will you introduce the participants of the expo?

A: Among the keynote speakers are Jorge A. Munoz, practice manager of the Global Land Unit, World Bank. Twenty-seven working-level officials from 23 countries will be invited to the expo. 

Q: Will you elaborate on the current status and prospects of the Korean and global geospatial information industries?

A: (Current Status and Prospects of Korean Geospatial Information Industry)

A geospatial information survey released in 2013 showed that the portion of the Korean geospatial information industry is low, but the industry with a higher rate of operating profit to revenue and a lower debt ratio is transforming itself into a sound, added-value industrial sector. With the development of the IT technology, the prospects of the industry are upbeat, with signs of expansion in both industrial technology and daily life perspectives. 

Looking into the industry in the industrial technology perspective, geospatial information technology can be employed to make a feasibility study into overseas projects and diagnose their current status prior to contract or construction, and it is involved in the design of the construction of overseas infrastructure as well, so it has an infinite growth potential of the geospatial industry responding to the development of other industries. 

In the daily life perspective, calling a tax via smartphone has become reality. Subscribers of the service have already surpassed the 100,000 mark. Such services using geospatial information that enhance customers’ convenience may involve technologies creating new business opportunities in the taxi business and IT business sectors. 

The government recently completed revising three laws related to geospatial information, including the Basic Act on the National Geospatial Information. Major policies on geospatial information it has so far implemented will likely expedite convergence with other industries and the spread of diverse location-based info-tech services. 

National geospatial information, put on hold due to national security and regulations will be deregulated in a step-by-step basis, leading to the combination and distribution of Korean and foreign geospatial information with ideas and technologies. I expect regulatory reform for the development of the industry to boost growth momentum and evolve into an industry that creates new added value and bring more convenient in our daily life.

The global geospatial information market, forecast to grow to some 140 trillion won in 2015, is likely to continue to surge at an annual average increase rate of 11 percent despite the global economic downturn. If such convergence arenas as real estate, advertising and social commerce are counted on top of such conventional geospatial information segments as survey and geographic information system (GIS), the global geospatial information market is projected to range from 900 trillion won to 1,000 trillion won. By area, the United States is predicted to jump at an annual average rate of 35 percent, and each continent is forecast to swell at an annual average rate of 20percent. 

The United States and Europe control more than 80 percent of the global GIS market, but other geospatial information segments are at an early stage without front-runners, so Korea has the potential to come up strong because of the combination of our excellent IT technology. With the revision of domestic laws allowing convergence with other industries, the Korean geospatial information industry will likely become a global industrial leader. 

Amidst the changes in the global market, the Smart Geospatial Information Expo 2015 will serve as an opportunity to get a glimpse into global trends and gain access to the global market. The expo will also give a chance for people to experience what geospatial information can do for an affluent life. I expect people from Korean and foreign geospatial information industry, academia and technology circles and the general public to participate in the expo.