The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 16th that it will begin accepting applications for the '2025 Smart City Creation and Expansion Project' starting on the 17th.
This project aims to address various urban issues and promote urban industry by integrating smart technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), into cities, with cooperation from local governments and corporations, which can receive support from the national government.
This year, the project will be divided into four types: ▲ hub-type smart city creation project ▲ small smart city creation project ▲ smart city solution expansion project ▲ smart city specialized district creation project, and applications will be sought from local governments to implement these projects.
The 'hub-type smart city' is a project aimed at establishing a comprehensive smart service city that can serve as a smart hub function, facilitating the spread of smart cities nationwide. This project will support the establishment of smart infrastructure that supports local regions and industries and will help discover and demonstrate innovative urban services related to smart cities, enabling it to function as a hub for the expansion of smart cities.
This year, one city that can serve as a smart hub (specialized city, metropolitan city, special self-governing city, or county) will be selected, and the selected local government will receive a maximum of 16 billion won from the national government over three years.
The 'small smart city' is a project aimed at creating a city concentrated with specialized solutions that can respond to changes in the urban environment, such as climate crises and regional extinction, ensuring that medium and small cities can grow into sustainable and competitive entities.
Applicants can choose one of two detailed types: 'climate crisis response type,' which creates eco-friendly and carbon-neutral, climate disaster-zero integrated specialized cities, and 'regional extinction response type,' which addresses population changes such as low birth rates and aging while supporting local industry revitalization, and up to three cities will be selected.
This project targets cities with a population of less than 1 million (special self-governing cities, provinces, counties, and districts), and the selected local governments will receive a maximum of 8 billion won from the national government over three years.
The 'smart city solution expansion project' is an initiative that supports the dissemination of excellent solutions discovered through various smart city projects to small cities, allowing many citizens to experience smart city services.
This project will allow the selected local governments to autonomously establish both standard and specialized solutions and provide coaching from leading local governments with demonstration experience, as well as consulting from specialized institutions.
The support targets cities with a population of fewer than 300,000 (cities, counties, and districts), and through this application process, up to five locations will be selected, receiving national funding of 1.2 billion won over one year.
The 'smart city specialized district' is a new initiative this year to designate regions equipped with smart city conditions and a foundation for research and development of innovative technologies as specialized districts to create a sustainable smart city industrial ecosystem.
Support will be provided to create a favorable environment for corporations to demonstrate smart city services through deregulation, provision of innovative technology demonstration spaces, and support for the utilization of urban data.
In particular, this year, collaboration with the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'On-Device AI Service Demonstration and Expansion Project' is expected to enhance the activation of urban space demonstrations for specialized smart services in fields like mobility and robotics that utilize AI semiconductors.
This year, one smart city specialized district will be selected, and the local government in charge of the project (special metropolitan cities, special self-governing cities, provinces, and counties) will receive a maximum of 8 billion won in national funding over three years.
Among the four types of projects, the 'smart city solution expansion project' will accept applications from April 14 to April 16, and after evaluation by a committee of experts in the related fields, the final selections are planned to be made in May.
The remaining three projects will accept applications from May 19 to May 21, with final selections planned for June after evaluation by the committee.
Detailed information regarding the '2025 Smart City Creation and Expansion Project' application can be found on the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's website or the comprehensive smart city portal from the 17th.