(Unofficial translation)

Fellow Koreans, citizens of Busan,

I am very pleased that Busan is hosting a presentation today on innovative strategies for one of the Government’s top priorities: building a smart city. 

A smart city is the cradle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is the look of a future city we have to forge anew. It is the place where our lives will become safer and more enriched.

Busan is the door to newness. Korea was introduced to unknown civilizations from abroad through Busan, and Korea’s cultural inputs and products spread to the world through Busan.

Today, Busan begins yet another chapter in history, one to be titled the smart city. Thinking about an imaginary future city emerging before our eyes already has my heart racing.

Korea is the first country in the world to spawn a smart city and enact relevant legislation.

In much the same way that life without the internet and smartphones has become unimaginable, smart cities will imminently transform our lifestyles. 

Just a moment ago, we experienced new technologies such as a smart streetlight that provides location-based safety services and a smart bench equipped with solar chargers for smartphones. We tasted a future city typified by safety and convenience.

In a smart city, technologies come alive for people.

Behind the facade of the facilities visible are the key technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution connected like neural networks through every nook and cranny. They will make our lives safer and more convenient. 

Those services that have been available separately thus far, including transport, public security, disaster prevention, administration, healthcare and daycare, will be linked with each other in a well-organized and efficient manner.

If you live in Busan’s smart city in 2022, you can save up to 124 hours a year: 60 hours spent on daily commutes, 20 hours on administrative works, five hours waiting at hospitals and so on. An integrated safety management system utilizing Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies will make it possible to notify the general public of information about such disasters as earthquake and fire immediately and to dispatch fire trucks within five minutes. The urban crime rate can be reduced by 25 percent and traffic accidents by 50 percent.

Everyone can benefit from tailor-made healthcare programs with a real-time health monitoring system. They will also be able to receive robot-assisted daily support with the adoption of home artificial intelligence assistants, autonomous delivery robots and rehabilitation robots.

After reviewing 39 candidate cities nationwide, the Special Committee on Smart City under the Presidential Committee on the Fourth Industrial Revolution finally chose Busan and Sejong City as the venues for the pilot smart cities in January last year.
 
Instead of renovating or redeveloping existing cities, this ambitious plan goes back to the drawing board to create pilot smart cities that will be characterized by seamless application of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. Empty fields along the Nakdong River in Busan and hills in Sejong will be reborn as urban centers for a new civilization that are at the forefront of the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
 
These cities will be constructed through a different system. Whereas urban planning experts and builders lead the existing method of creating new towns, master planners (MPs) from the private sector are now playing a leading role by planning and designing in concert with other professionals while companies are also taking part by reviewing business models. In the process, innovative attempts at collecting citizens' ideas continue as well.
 
For its part, the Government is also providing support by pushing for the introduction of a regulatory sandbox for smart city development and giving considerable financial backing. From this year to 2021, the combined investments by the Government and private sector will amount to 3.7 trillion won.

The two experts who are going to present smart city innovative strategies today are not urban planning specialists, but a brain engineer and an IT platform expert. Brain engineer Jeong Jae-seung and IT platform expert Hwang Jong-seong are giving shape to unique smart cities in Sejong City and Busan, respectively. I'd like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to both experts for impeccably leading this ambitious national project being pursued for the first time.

Notably, an innovation ecosystem will be established in Busan’s smart city by fostering new industries such as the robot industry, and the smart city will further develop into an eco-friendly future waterfront city. Construction will begin at the end of this year, and from the end of 2021, citizens will be able to move into the new smart city and experience it firsthand. 

Technology is of value not for being new or eye-catching but for being of use to people. In a smart city, people are not forced to accommodate to city conditions, but rather, the city functions to meet the everyday needs of its inhabitants, so you can look forward to it. 

Ladies and gentlemen, and citizens of Busan,

A safe and convenient future city, the smart city is also a platform for the Republic of Korea’s innovative growth. As smart cities make it possible to experience the pace-setting technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution with regard to self-driving cars, healthcare and new renewable energies, they have become competitive venues for the convergence and integration of technologies from countries around the world. They are also the areas expected to see the fastest growth emerging in the global market.

Multiple countries are engaging in fierce competition in the smart city field to take the lead in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, but Korea is the first to build a pilot complex at the national level. 

It is significant to secure the leading position in the global smart city market.  

The goals and determination of the Government are clear – to develop Busan and Sejong into the most advanced smart cities in the world.  

If the pilot cities in Busan and Sejong are successful, we will endeavor to enter the global market with a leading model that encompasses the entire process from urban conceptualization, planning and design to construction and operation. 

We possess the potential and ability required. The world is recognizing the Korean-style smart city for our advanced information and communication technology, including the Internet of Things, and strong track record in constructing new towns.

The Korean-designed smart city definitely stood out at the ASEAN Smart Cities Showcase in Singapore last November. Leading smart city countries, including Singapore and the Netherlands, as well as China, Peru and Oman, are signing MOUs with Korea with the hope of cooperating in the area. 

In addition, Korean companies are participating in the construction of the South Saad Al-Abdullah New City in Kuwait, a smart city development project worth 26 trillion won. They are also involved in collaborative projects in various countries with international organizations, including the World Bank Group and UN-Habitat. 

Fellow Koreans and Busan citizens, 

The success of a smart city depends on innovative people. When cities function as a living platform and citizens fully demonstrate their innovative quality and inclusiveness, the value and competitiveness of a smart city can rise. 

A smart city is not simply about constructing buildings; it requires businesses as well as citizens cooperating, sharing, shaping and managing it together. 

I am confident that the strength of leading smart cities around the world will begin in Busan, a city of inclusiveness and openness. With its innovativeness and inclusiveness, Sejong City, which is growing as an administrative center worthy of its name, has the most optimal geography for a smart city. 

If Busan and Sejong succeed as the world’s best smart cities, the Republic of Korea can rise as a pace-setting economy. We will accomplish it without fail.

For the success of the smart city pilot complexes, I hope that the people, including Busan and Sejong citizens, will take great interest in and pool their strengths for the project.    

Thank you.