Incheon City participated in CES 2024, the world’s largest home appliance and IT exhibition held in Las Vegas, USA from the 9th (Tuesday) to the 12th (Friday, local time) and operated the ‘Incheon · Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) Promotion Center’.
At CES 2024, Incheon City is the only Korean local government to enter the main exhibition hall, the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), with an exhibition hall measuring 132.23㎡ (40 pyeong) in the artificial intelligence (AI) and robot area in the North Hall. operated. In these promotional halls, 28 organizations and companies exhibited products and technologies and promoted videos.
Incheon City, which announced its debut at CES through this year’s exhibition, is building an AI-based social safety net that citizens can feel under the theme of ‘Light up the Future with Smart AI·Robot Solutions’. , introduced services utilizing next-generation technology, such as designating an autonomous driving pilot district and operating a digital twin-based platform.
At the same time, by introducing innovative smart city technologies developed by promising companies and startups in Incheon, Incheon City, a city with a population of 3 million, announced to the world its future vision for becoming a ‘top-notch smart hub city’.
Incheon City has been building a leading smart city for over 20 years, including the Incheon Free Economic Zone, which was formed around Incheon International Airport and Incheon Port. In this process, Incheon is actively utilizing next-generation technologies such as big data to improve citizen safety and expand convenience facilities, and is building crime prevention, disaster safety response systems, and advanced road transportation platforms.
Incheon City, which has solidified its position as a global smart city leader with such a proactive cutting-edge strategy, presents a blueprint that depicts the future city that will continue to develop in the future, and further solidifies its grand will to establish itself as one of the ‘world’s top 10 cities.’ We have decided to participate in CES 2024, a global mega exhibition.
In particular, Incheon City held the ‘Incheon Media Stage’ event at the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) Promotion Center on the 10th, the day after the exhibition. This was an event held to promote the development roadmap of the smart city of Incheon to global media and multinational visitors, and Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok personally participated and attracted a lot of attention in the venue.
Hubert Nguyen, editor-in-chief of the American tech media ‘Ubergizmo’, appeared in conversation with Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, who is embarking on Incheon City’s global sales strategy. In response, AVING News visited the event site and presented the information released by Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok. We heard firsthand about Incheon City’s global smart city leadership strategy.
Q1. At CES 2024, where technology companies from around the world gather, Incheon City was the only Korean local government to hold a venue at LVCC North Hall. I am curious about the background to this decision.
A. Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok: Incheon is an international city representing Korea, and at the same time, it is the first city in Korea to take the lead in building a smart city. Accordingly, Incheon is proud of its unique experience as a smart city and its status as an international city. At the same time, I am here to contribute to creating a better world by sharing the relevant policies and status of Incheon, which is striving to foster high-tech future industries, with people from more countries and regions.
Q2. Confidence in Incheon’s smart city capabilities is evident. So, what do you think are the values that latecomers should prioritize when trying to build a smart city?
A. Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok: The speed at which the world changes is accelerating day by day compared to the past, and this is likely the result of technological innovation. I understand that the AI and related convergence technologies seen here at CES are also aimed at creating a better world.
As the world transitions to a new phase with technological advancement, it is important for various companies leading the high-tech industry to share their technologies and pursue mutual convergence to create a better world. We believe that through these efforts, we will be able to improve the convenience of civilian life and enrich the world.
In particular, Incheon has advanced know-how and experience in pursuing harmony and creating new concepts, and wants to share its insights with more countries and regions.
Q3. Incheon aims to emerge as the leading smart city in the world. What are the plans and directions for this?
A. Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok: Incheon focuses its growth and development on building a better society following the values of ‘human-centeredness.’ Additionally, we are always thinking about how technology and industry can support this roadmap. Incheon is an economic and industrial center with the second largest economy in Korea, and the goal is to direct this incredible level of technological and economic power in a direction that is helpful for change and development in the world.
Q4. We were able to get a glimpse of Incheon’s willingness to cooperate with other cities around the world to strengthen its smart city capabilities. I am curious about ways to build cooperative relationships.
A. Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok: In order to share the smart city development and economic growth strategies that Incheon City has been pursuing with other cities, we are developing related policies with an open attitude to establishing cooperative relationships. In addition, as many other regions understand Incheon’s capabilities as a representative of Korea and its status as an international city, Incheon plans to continue to fulfill its role.
Q5. What is the ultimate goal that Incheon wants to achieve?
A. Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok: As I have repeatedly emphasized, Incheon is already an international city representing the Republic of Korea. Furthermore, Incheon has declared its goal of developing into a ‘world’s top 10 city’ and is establishing a strategy, using last year’s hosting of the Overseas Korean Office as a starting point.
In order for Incheon to become one of the world’s top 10 cities, it must focus on developing the city’s current outstanding competitiveness, that is, developing capabilities in future growth industries such as bio, semiconductors, and UAM (urban air transportation). In addition, we will make efforts in various fields, including building an overseas-oriented business network in earnest.
Meanwhile, ‘CES’, the world’s largest IT exhibition hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), is an exhibition where you can see the flow of innovative technologies around the world at a glance and is held every January in Las Vegas, USA. AVING News, which has covered CES for 18 consecutive years, has reported CES news around the world every year since 2006, and has been selected through ‘BEST OF CES’ and ‘BEST OF MADE IN KOREA’, which select the best innovative products, companies and technologies. has been in progress. In addition, CES on-site issues are vividly conveyed through ‘AVING LIVE’.
Incheon City will participate by forming the ‘Incheon/IFEZ Promotion Center’ in the AI/Robotics Zone of the LVCC North Hall and the Incheon Creative Economy Innovation Center and Incheon’s Startup Park joint pavilion in Eureka Park, the startup zone. In addition, as part of the pre-promotion of Incheon participating companies, a ‘pre-global media interview’ was conducted with Ubergzimo, a global media that covers CES every year.
* Special reporters: Joseph Choe, Kidai Kim, Dongkwan Kim, Mokkyung Lee, Sangun Choi, Seung Hyun Nam, Sunghwan Kim, Taeuck Lim, Min Choi