Incheon to House World’s Largest Ubiquitous City

The Songdo U-city, also known as the Tomorrow City, will be the world’s largest integrated urban operation center and go into operation in 2012. U-services will include systems for traffic, disaster prevention and pollution control. / Courtesy of the IFEZ Authority

This is the first in a two-part series about the development of the Incheon Free Economic Zone.

By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter

Incheon has become the frontrunner to become the nation's first U-City, or "ubiquitous city" ― a city that has ubiquitous information technology.

To be completed by 2014, New Songdo's U-City project is the biggest such initiative among those underway at various locations around the country and the world.

A U-City has all its major information systems ― including residential, medical, business and governmental ― interconnected. Virtually everything is linked to an overall system through technologies such as wireless networking and RFID tags.

As an IT leader, Korea has been vocal about its desire to implement the concept, planning to build some 15 ubiquitous cities, including the Hwaseong-Dongtan U-City in Gyeonggi Province, which boasts a host of ubiquitous services involving parking, crime prevention and other areas of daily life.

However, New Songdo City, Incheon, will be the first to fully adapt the u-city concept, according to city officials.

In the West, the concept has been controversial, raising concerns regarding privacy. But in Asia, particularly in Korea, the concept is viewed as an avenue to show off technological prowess and attract foreign investment.

Experts have said that ubiquitous technology is likely to become a trend in the future, starting with devices like smart-card house keys, which can be used to get on the subway, rent a public bicycle and pay for goods.

But the largest and most unique U-city here will be New Songdo, which is constructed on reclaimed land off the coast of Incheon. Incheon is the home to one of the largest international airports in the world and to a free economic zone that will eventually transform the area into a global business complex.

During the 30-day Incheon Global Fair & Festival which concluded in October, Incheon offered a glimpse of what the Songdo U-City will look like, through its six-story U-City Vision Center equipped with wireless connectivity and other state-of-the-art facilities.

The highly successful event was mainly conceived to introduce the evolution of Incheon as a major international business center through the completion of the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ), devoted to international finance, IT, biotech industries, tourism and educational facilities.

A Model U-City

Songdo is increasingly being considered as the most visible example of U-City projects gaining attention worldwide. In the U.S., the first such example was the Manhattan Harbour project in Dayton, Kentucky. Similar measures are being promoted in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Malaysia and Europe.

In Songdo, computers will be built into the houses, streets and offices as part of its network, by 2014. As well, various parts of the country have joined the move to increase their levels of convenience, security and environment-friendliness.

Particularly, central and local governments and businesses have been working together to build U-Cities in Busan, Daejeon, Jeju and Incheon.

Busan will devote 850-960 billion won to revamp Busan into a ubiquitous city by 2010, with a focus on providing the service around the port area and convention/exhibition centers, as well as offering integrated transportation services. Jeju's U-City outline revolves around tourism, as seen in its plans for museums and parks outfitted with ubiquitous technology.

Seoul has also been implementing such a project since 1998, in the western district of Sangam-dong, in the form of a research and development hub for the country's high-tech industry.

Since the 2007 enactment of a law on the construction of U-Cities, the central government has sought a multitude of policy initiatives to ultimately create a U-Korea, aiming to enhance the competitiveness of its information industry.

The Songdo U-city, also known as the Tomorrow City, will be the world's largest integrated urban operation center and go into operation in 2012. U-services will include systems for traffic, disaster prevention and pollution control.

In fact, the concept is the backbone of the IFEZ.

The IFEZ is operating an RFID center that has been built with a joint investment of $301 million from the central and local governments.

Expectations for the IFEZ are running high, especially with the Oct. 15 opening of the majestic Incheon Bridge, the world's seventh largest. Celebrating its sixth anniversary, the IFEZ has been attracting more global attention, with world-acclaimed media outlets visiting the city to cover its development and future prospects.

The IFEZ is now in its second-phase stage of development, which will continue until 2014. The five-year scheme will focused mainly on fine-tuning infrastructure and the further development of conditions that are friendly to foreign businesspeople.

Following the closing of the Incheon Fair & Festival, The IFEZ Authority signed MOUs with several foreign firms, including Boeing, Samsung TESCO and McCaffery Interests for a variety of development projects.

Boeing has committed to building a training center for their pilots in the IFEZ and McCaffery Interests will develop a world-class hotel and shopping district in the area.

"The MOUs are proof that more businesses around the world perceive Incheon as the right place to invest. Based on these and past investments, we will do our utmost to bring in more foreign businesses to the IFEZ in the future," a city official said.

New Songdo, where English will be commonly used, is often referred to as one of the largest private real-estate developments in the world. When completed in 2014, the $25-billion project will be home to some 65,000 people and the workplaces of 300,000, authorities said.

One of the three districts of the IFEZ with Cheongna and Yeongjong, New Songdo City, 35 kilometers from Seoul, it is the largest development project of its kind in Korea as Northeast Asia's new multicultural center of business and education.

By 2014, the Incheon Free Economic Zone will house more than 300 Northeast Asian business headquarters, 30 international organizations including those affiliated with the United Nations, and extended campuses of 15 foreign universities.

A Free Economic Zone (FEZ) is an area specially designated to provide companies with the optimal environment to engage in global business activities. Ultimately, FEZs are aimed at building world-class cities based on policies of global standards and catering to multinational and multicultural communities. They will additionally be equipped with quality schools, hospitals, and transportation and tourism facilities.

FEZ initiatives are currently underway at six locations across the nation ― Incheon, Busan-Jinhae, Gwangyang Bay, the West Sea coastline, Daegu-Gyeongbuk and Saemanguem-Gunsan.

In 2003, Korea joined a long list of countries, including China, India, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, in designating Free Economic Zones.

jhdo@koreatimes.co.kr