The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is initiating a regulatory sandbox competition for smart city technology demonstrations starting March 24. The submission period is from April 17 to 24. The technologies eligible for demonstration have been expanded to include not only transportation but also housing, energy, and environmental sectors. Successful projects will receive up to 5 billion won in demonstration project funding.
The smart city regulatory sandbox has approved 56 cases since the system was implemented in 2020, resulting in a total investment attraction of 22.4 billion won and an increase in sales by 46 billion won. However, since 53% of the approved technologies have been concentrated in the transportation sector, there has been a recognized need for expansion into other fields.
This competition will involve the Ministry of Land finding suitable local governments for companies that do not have a demonstration target region. Documentation procedures for cooperation with the demonstration local government have also been simplified. The Ministry will evaluate priorities based on business plans and rapid regulatory checks and decide on project funding by the end of September after a review by the National Smart City Committee.
Eligible participants include companies with smart innovation technologies, non-profit organizations, and local governments, and applications can be submitted either individually or in consortium. Only technologies with identified regulations will be considered for support.
The Ministry will hold an information session for participating companies and organizations on April 2 at 2 PM at Seoul Square.
Yoon Yeong-jung, Director of the Urban Economy Division at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, emphasized that this competition will facilitate the development of new smart city technologies and lower regulatory barriers, with continued support to advance the smart city industry ecosystem.