Korean ‘smart City’ Set for Sihanoukville

• 4 October 2016
• Local News
• 2256 Views

The South Korean government plans to develop the kingdom’s first fully ‘Smart City’ in Sihanoukville province after reaching an agreement with the Cambodian government in August.

The Smart City project is part of a memorandum of agreement signed between Cambodia’s Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction (MLMUPC) and Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport when an MLMUPC delegation paid a two-day visit to Seoul, South Korea on 15-17 August, 2016 to study modern urban planning there.

On his return, H.E Chea Sophara, Minister of MLMUPC announced the broad terms of the agreement on his Facebook page, which related to land use planning, high-tech urbansiation studies, drafting a land management and urbanisation law, and the construction of public housing.

The planned ‘Smart City’ would integrate all essential utilities, facilities and environmental systems with information and communication technology (ICT) to create a highly efficient community.

A minister at South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation stated that, “South Korea’s experience in using ICT to resolve urban area problems will help Cambodia’s efforts to deal with reckless development near Sihanoukville,” according to the Korea Herald.

H.E Chea Sophara also indicated that other smart cities would be built.“This MoU will be in effect for three years.The implementation will begin soon with Sihanoukville as the starting place. It will spread to Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Battambang, Kampong Cham and Tbong Khmoum provinces,” the Phom Penh Post reported him as saying.

The agreement is said to provide from Republic of Korea technical aid in administration for housing management, city development and public housing as well as support for the construction of a public housing project in Phnom Penh. It is also expected that a number of Cambodian delegations will visit Korean smart cities on fact-finding missions.

No estimates of cost or timeframes related to the agreement have yet been released.

• Urbanization and Architect