South Korea Lends Help to Cambodia in Developing ‘Smart Cities’

South Korea is lending a helping hand to Cambodia with its urban development initiatives to help in developing a series of "smart cities".

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport proposed a memorandum of understanding with the Cambodian Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction on August 16. Because it is the first project between the two countries, they will join forces to turn Sihanoukville into a "smart city" together with state-of-the-art infrastructure including transportation, water management, and energy. The infrastructure will run based on advanced information technology from South Korea.

The country's one and only port city, Sihanoukville, has a population of about 200,000 and it is about 230 km from the capital city of Cambodia which is Phnom Penh. The current infrastructure in the coastal city is still undeveloped even the government puts effort to make the coastal city modernize.

"South Korea's experiences in dealing with urban issues, such as water management, with the help of 'smart' IT, will surely provide a solution to Cambodia as it has to cope with unsustainable urban development at the port city," an official from the Korean ministry said.

The MOU also focuses on joint efforts between South Korea and Cambodia government in the establishment of public housing across Cambodia through modeling Korea's similar housing institutions.

Furthermore, the "Research Into the Implementation of Models for Public Housing Construction in Phnom Penh" joint project agreed upon in the MOU. It allows the two nations to investigate the recent status of housing across the capital, as well as to put in place a system to supply, secure and develop land for construction and to determine land supply standards.

In August next year, a pilot construction project will begin in the capital of Cambodia following the project agreement between the two countries.