Busan’s posh seaside district of Haeundae is getting a hi-tech makeover, with smart streetlamps, GPS trackers for kids, smart parking solutions and traffic lights, and smart energy controllers for buildings and shops.

The transformation is being led by Korea’s mobile network operator SK Telecom, which is set to showcase its smart-city technologies and services already up and running in the southern port city on Friday.
 

Choi Yang-hee, the Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Busan Mayor Seo Byung-soo, Yoon Jong-rok, the chief of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency of Korea, and around 100 officials from the government and the mobile carrier are expected to attend the event.

“SKT will try to successfully launch smart city business models in Busan and expand them into other regions at home and abroad,” said Lee Hyung-hee, SKT’s mobile network operations, in a statement.

SK Telecom will make further efforts to nurture experts for the Internet of Things, and start-ups, and launch global IoT services by 2019, he added.

The Busan smart city project was launched in May this year, with an aim of installing a smart network infrastructure in Haeundae, a major residential and commercial district that draws many tourists.

ICT Minister Choi has also pledged to support the smart city project, which he said will “help solve many problems and inconveniences in an urban area and realize the creative ideas of start-ups.”

City governments across the nation have recently been paying keen attention to making the cities smarter, utilizing the IoT technologies.

Among the city governments which are proceeding with smart city projects are Incheon, Paju, and Seongnam.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)