Korea and Indonesia discussed ways to develop a “smart” city during a three-day workshop in Jakarta organized by the ASEAN-Korea Centre. The “Seminar for Investment Promotion on Smart City,” co-hosted by the Indonesia Investment Promotion Center (BKPM), invited Korean experts to Indonesia to explore investment opportunities in smart city-related projects and share their expertise, on Jan. 16-18. “The fastest-growing cities in Indonesia are feeling the strain of rapid population growth, which had led to traffic congestion, pollution and other urban issues,” ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary General Kim Young-sun said. “In particular, there is a growing need in the fastest-growing ‘middleweight’ cities of the nation for urban development in a more effective and sustainable way.”
BKPM Deputy Chairperson for Investment Climate Development Farah Ratnadewi Indriani and Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Cho Tai-young attended the meeting. Officials from the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement and the provincial governments of East Java, Surabaya, and Malang discussed smart city-related projects, followed by one-on-one business meetings with government officials and private partners from the infrastructure and ICT sectors. During the trip, the Korean delegation had a change to look around Bandung, Indonesia’s third-largest city with a population of 2.5 million.
“The city government has put special emphasis on smart-city development, and the government delegation of the city visited Sejong City of Korea for a benchmark of U-CITY, or Ubiquitous City, in 2015,” an organization spokesperson said. “I hope this mission program will offer a platform for Korean private sectors not only to take part in the smart city-related projects in Indonesia, but also to contribute towards sustainable development of Indonesia by sharing good practices and experience on smart-city development.” According to the organization, the ASEAN region’s population is expected to increase by at least 16 percent by 2025.
“As the population trend demonstrates the need for smart-city development to address urban issues and accelerate growth in a sustainable way, the ASEAN-Korea Centre carries out programs aiming to share expertise and experience of Korea, thus to contribute towards sustainable development of the region,” the spokesperson said. The ASEAN-Korea Centre is an intergovernmental organization established in 2009 to promote exchanges between Korea and the 10 ASEAN member states.
