Berita

By Jonathan Andrews, Cities Today

Seoul is deploying blockchain technology to establish a trust system to restore credibility to the used car market and help salesmen to better manage title transfers, accident history, car conditions and more.

It is one aspect of 14 set out in a USD 109-million blockchain masterplan launched last October by Seoul’s mayor, Park Won-soon. According to Park, Promotion Plan for Blockchain City Seoul will boost the blockchain industry – considered to be at the core of the Fourth Industrial Revolution–across multiple areas of his city.

Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology which stores transactions across various computers. Having information stored in a decentralised format makes it impossible – according to the city – to forge or manipulate. Due to this, it is applicable in sectors that require a high level of security and credibility such as finance, healthcare, logistics, and more.

“Blockchain is an innovative technology that has the potential to bring a fundamental change to society. It has caught the world’s attention as a fuel for innovative growth that can boost a city’s competitive edge.”– Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul

IT market research institution, Gartner, forecasts that the world’s blockchain market will expand into a US$3.16 trillion market by 2030. Due to this, there is a high level of global competition to lead the blockchain market.

Vilnius in Lithuania took the lead in February 2018 by launching Europe’s first international blockchain technology centre. Switzerland has prepared and drafted blockchain industry guidelines while China created the world’s largest start-up fund (around US$1.4 billion) for blockchain. Competition is lining up between cities with Dubai and Moscow also leading the blockchain charge.

“Blockchain is an innovative technology that has the potential to bring a fundamental change to society,” says Park. “It has caught the world’s attention as a fuel for innovative growth that can boost a city’s competitive edge.”

According to the Seoul plan, a fund worth 100 billion won (USD 88.5 million) will be set up in collaboration with the private sector. Park said that the Seoul Metropolitan Government will boost the blockchain industry’s ecosystem through five years of concentrated investment. In 2018, 14 administrative services began implementing blockchain technology in various steps to overhaul public services that are directly connected to the lives of citizens.

The plan is to develop Seoul from a “great e-government city” to becoming a blockchain-based smart city with a competitive edge.

“Seoul with its advanced ICT sector has the power to become the world’s best in blockchain industry and technology,” he adds. “We will aggressively support the blockchain industry to transform Seoul into an international blockchain city.”

Seoul will build two new complexes in the Gaepo Digital Innovation Park and Mapo Seoul Start-up Hub for 200 companies and start-ups to help foster a blockchain ecosystem.

“We have a three-year plan to make the blockchain complexes where people with expertise in blockchain can create their ideas,” explains Ko Kyung-hee, Director, Information Planning Division, Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Part of this will include a four-year training programme for blockchain talent. The courses will range from introductory to intensive to professional, and focus on relevant sectors like finance and software. Ko says the city wants to train more than 700 people in the field.

“The three major benefits of blockchain are transparency, reliability and efficiency,” she says. “We cannot apply blockchain technology into all of our administrative services at once, but we will begin in healthcare and gradually roll it out into other services.”

Ko adds that even the grant application process for citizens will be made much easier.

“If you want to get grants from the city government then you need to gather a lot of documents,” she says. “If they are from different city departments, even if the application is online, you have to start all over again. But if all those administrative departments can share all that information securely it will be very convenient for users. We will provide a one-stop service.”

Blockchain will also be integrated into Seoul’s successful online voting platform, ‘m-Voting’, which allows residents to vote on government proposals and put forward their own. The city says the new technology will prevent malpractice in voting procedures.

To further foster cooperation between the public and private sectors Seoul will provide its administrative services as test-beds and run a Blockchain Policy Advisory Panel, or thinktank, made of up experts to enhance the on-site execution.

Park is leading the blockchain charge himself and it was a key pledge in his successful re-election bid in June 2018.

After making the announcement in October he visited Crypto Valley in Zug, Switzerland–a blockchain innovation ecosystem–and toured the on-site facilities, meeting the mayor and discussing ways the two cities could further collaborate with digital innovation.

“The mayor’s main focus is ‘citizen, citizen, citizen,’” says Ko. “His focus is the citizens of Seoul and a lot of the projects are developed and initiated with his thinking.”

In fact it is the citizens who will be the judge of whether Park’s bet on blockchain pays off. He can count on the support of Seoul’s used car fraternity as a good starting point.

https://news.itu.int/seoul-blockchain/