Korea Announces Winners of 2026 Smart City Initiative
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced winners of its 2026 smart city initiative, reported by The Chosun Ilbo and Seoul Economic Daily on June 12, 2026. Coverage by Seoul Economic Daily names Suwon, Busan, Seongnam and two other sites among those selected and reports that Busan's Centum City was chosen as a specialized AI smart city complex with 16.8 billion won allocated through 2028. Per a MOLIT public notice dated January 28, 2026, the broader K-City Network program, launched in 2020, supports international smart-city planning and provides grants of up to 700 million KRW per project for master plans and capacity building.
What happened
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) announced winners of its 2026 smart city initiative, reported by The Chosun Ilbo and Seoul Economic Daily on June 12, 2026. Seoul Economic Daily identifies Suwon, Busan, Seongnam and two additional sites among the selections and states that Busan's Centum City will receive 16.8 billion won in funding through 2028 to develop an AI-focused smart city hub.
K-City Network program
Per a MOLIT public notice dated January 28, 2026, the K-City Network program was launched in 2020 to export Korean smart-city expertise and to provide consulting and capacity building to overseas partners. The notice states MOLIT will provide grants for master plans and pre-feasibility studies; maximum grants to selected projects are 700 million KRW. The K-City Network framework includes preliminary on-site consulting, stakeholder interviews, and competitive selection of projects for further support, per documents on smartcity.go.kr and the MOLIT public notice PDF.
Context
South Korea has run the K-City Network since 2020, and this round continues a multi-year push to package domestic smart-city know-how for domestic pilots and overseas export. National selection rounds that pair city-level pilots with dedicated funding typically accelerate procurement cycles for sensors, connectivity, and urban data platforms. Public grant caps such as the 700 million KRW figure generally favour consortia that can deliver turnkey planning plus technical capacity-building services.
What to watch
Practitioners should monitor published project scopes and tender documents from MOLIT and selected municipalities for technical standards, data-governance requirements, and procurement timelines. Also watch which Korean consultancies and technology providers are named in implementation contracts, since those relationships often define reference architectures for subsequent international K-City Network projects.
Scoring Rationale
A notable South Korean government smart city award cycle with a specific AI hub designation for Busan's Centum City at 16.8 billion won. Relevant to practitioners tracking municipal AI deployments and Korean vendor ecosystems, but limited global AI-sector impact. Primarily a domestic policy/procurement signal; the AI angle is real but one component of a broader smart city program.
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