A bird’s-eye’s view of the “Sejong National Pilot City,” to be built by Korea Land & Housing Corp. (LH) in cooperation with the private sector. (Photo: LH)

Korea Land & Housing Corp. (LH) plans to jointly build “Sejong National Pilot City” as a smart city platform with the private sector.

A special purpose company (SPC), a joint venture by the public and private sectors, will be established to create a Korean smart city.

The SPC will be charged with creating a sustainable smart city platform by offering and operating innovative smart services such as AI big data, IoT, and “digital twin” for more than 15 years.

Sejong National Pilot City is a test-bed in which citizens and companies can experience and verify innovative services.

The pilot smart city will be created at Sejong City’s 5-1 living sphere zone. LH is launching the project in June, following Busan Eco Delta City, whose smart city project broke ground last late November.

The Sejong pilot smart city project calls for creating a site covering 2.74 trillion sq. meters. The pilot city will be designed to create a pedestrian-centric structure in which citizens can travel in a convenient fashion without owning vehicles.

They will use self-driving shuttles and personal mobility vehicles downtown via car sharing or bus rapid transit (BRT) outside of the city.

The pilot city will create a low-carbon and eco-friendly environment, suitable for walking, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by one-third compared to conventional city through things such as brisk unmanned deliveries.

The projected smart city will consist of a venture startup zone, a business anchor zone, and a smart living zone. It aims at transforming citizens’ daily lives by employing technologies such as AI, big data and blockchain.

Smart technologies will be employed from all stages ranging from urban design to construction.

The project will create space for optimizing seven smart services, including mobility, health care, education, energy/environment, governance, culture/shopping and job creation.

To this end, “Smart First Town” will be created by the end of next year in which you can experience innovative aspects of smart city.

Smart First Town, which will be 50,000 square meters in size, will accommodate a publicity hall and a smart center in which citizens and companies can experience self-driving vehicles, zero energy buildings and other smart city technologies.

“Sejong O1 Consortium,” headed by LG CNS, has recently been designated as a preferred negotiator as a private-sector entity of the pilot smart city project.

Lim Dong-hee, head of LH’s Sejong Special Headquarters, said “We want to create a successful model as a platform city to enhance citizens’ happiness and provide creative opportunities to companies by launching the national smart city pilot project.”

Meanwhile, innovative technologies, to be verified through the pilot smart city project, will be applied to development and urban renewal projects LH will implement across the nation down the road.

Outcomes of the project will be employed to the “New Satellite City Phase III” project, being implemented just outside the capital.

LH Strikes MOU on Smart City with Cuzco, Peru

LH signed an MOU with Cuzco City on Oct. 27 in Peru to cooperate on projects to develop a smart city in the Astete International Airport area and the Peruvian city.

Citing safety issues and noise issues, Astete International Airport, a gate to Machu Picchu, the globally renowned tourist spot, is to be relocated to a new airport, dubbed Chinchero Cusco International Airport by 2025.

Cuzo City aims to develop the Astete International Airport area at the heart of the city as a smart city. Under the deal, Cuzco City and LH agreed to collaborate in the development of the smart city and build cooperative ties on exploring the city’s development projects and jointly implementing them.

An LH official said now that a consortium, led by Korea Airports Corp. is involved in managing the new Chinchero Cusco International Airport project, LH’s participation in the Peruvian city’s development projects will become a pump-priming for Korean companies’ entry to the Peruvian market.

LH President Byun Chang-heum said the latest deal will serve as an opportunity to build up foundation to enter the Peruvian market like exploration of collaboration projects in urban and housing development areas in Peru.

LH will make efforts to expand opportunities to enter other Central and South American markets through cooperative relations, he added.