![The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport building. [The Herald Business DB]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/07/29/news-p.v1.20260403.2eb108cb030c4e0f84f59f9bba6b33e3_P1.png)
City A, a local government, planned to build an intelligent selective surveillance system to reduce operator fatigue and improve monitoring accuracy. With no data on companies in the area holding relevant technology and no way to compare products, it struggled to recruit suitable firms. Through the Smart City Open Lab, it was able to find innovative technology companies based in the region.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Thursday it will overhaul the Smart City Comprehensive Portal, introducing a two-way online matching service that connects smart city project clients — such as local governments — with technology suppliers.
The Smart City Comprehensive Portal is a platform that shares information on companies' products and solutions, as well as policy cases, to promote the smart city industry. The revamp goes beyond simple information provision, adding an online two-way matching service between local governments and businesses and significantly expanding the "Solution Market" function.
The newly introduced Smart City Open Lab is an open matching platform that can be used in three ways.
Local governments can register demand projects on the Open Lab to address various urban challenges, while smart city companies can introduce their technologies and services and express interest in collaboration.
In addition, companies that need a testing site to validate their smart city technology, or that want access to urban data such as traffic control feeds, can register their needs on the Open Lab, allowing local governments that can provide such resources to signal their willingness to collaborate.
The platform also supports company-to-company matching, helping firms with technologies in different fields plan integrated services together to improve their chances of winning overseas contracts.
The Solution Market will also gain a curation function, selecting products suited to specific themes and explaining with examples how they can be applied in urban settings.
An English-language Solution Market homepage will be launched so that overseas clients can easily browse domestic companies' products and solutions. The portal will also see a redesigned user interface, added search functions, a more organized menu structure, and overall improvements to usability and system performance.
Lee Gi-bong, the ministry's urban policy director, said the overhaul "will open doors of opportunity for companies with outstanding products and services, and enable local governments with fresh ideas to tackle a range of urban challenges using innovative technology." He added, "We will spare no effort to ensure a safe and trustworthy smart city technology market takes shape, allowing the industry to continue growing."
The revamped Smart City Comprehensive Portal will run in pilot mode for three months starting Thursday, with user feedback incorporated before the full service launches Nov. 1.
hss@heraldcorp.com
