Park Won-soon, the official of Seoul, has unveiled government plans to cultivate the capital of South Korea, turning it into a blockchain smart city within the next five years with a total investment of $108 million USD.
According to a CoinDesk Korea report, during a visit to Zurich, Park disclosed that a government budget totaling 123.3 billion Korean won (about $108 million USD) would be invested in the Blockchain Urban Plan. The project will be executed from 2018 to 2020, covering 14 public services in five sectors.
As noted by Park labor welfare, vehicle history management, certificate issuance, donation management as well as elections are all major public services which will be disrupted by blockchain.
One of the significant examples raised by Mr. Park was the adoption of the Seoul Metropolitan Government in protecting part-time workers, who are not protected by labor contracts nor covered by employment insurance.
This socio-economic issue inspired one specific part of the plan: that these workers could have the opportunity to register and input their information through a blockchain application. Subsequently, labor welfare organizations and insurance companies will be able to share workers’ information over a decentralized network and make decision on insurance schemes if they participate as running nodes.
During his speech, Park also demonstrated his intention to invest another 60 million won, (appx $53 million USD) to build two complexes by 2021 as the base to house 200 blockchain startups by facilitating the Gaepo Digital Innovation Park and Mapo Seoul Startup Hub.
A couple of months after Park won the re-election campaign as Seoul’s mayor in June, the plan was unveiled. As mentioned in the CoinDesk report, Park disclosed his continuous support for blockchain proliferation in Seoul, proving that he would develop the city as a center for blockchain incubation.
Moreover, in June, South Korea’s Ministry of ICT announced that it would take the initiative to invest $9 million in the next few years, leading blockchain adoption in six major public services.
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