Cisco announced an initiative to increase productivity and foster innovation in Korea. Cisco’s Intelligent Urbanisation initiative was recently launched to help cities around the world use the network as the next utility for integrated city management, a better quality of life for citizens, and economic development.
The Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) is Korea’s first government-endorsed Free Economic Zone designated in August 2003. Cisco and Incheon Metropolitan City have already exchanged a Business Collaboration Memorandum on mutual collaboration for IFEZ in February 2009. Hence, the announcement is a further step to confirm and enhance their cooperation.
Incheon intends to draw on Cisco’s global strength in technology and its skill sets to drive network-enabled innovation in IFEZ. Based on an advanced networking infrastructure, Cisco will help IFEZ drive better city management, enhanced quality of life for citizens, and support sustainable economic development.
Cisco and Incheon will also explore various investment options that help enable the delivery of ubiquitous information and communication technology services within IFEZ. To this end, Cisco and Incheon will each assign a team of skilled professionals to review and validate these investment options, and to develop appropriate service concepts and strategies, a technology architecture, and detailed business and operating models for IFEZ.
This is another step toward the commitment of Cisco and Incheon Metropolitan City toward intelligent urbanisation and to mutually collaborate to transform the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) into a center of globalisation expertise in Asia Pacific. The model will be partly based on Cisco’s previous globalisation projects in major cities in Singapore, India, Malaysia and the Middle East.
Gale International, a leader in city-scale real estate development, signed a framework agreement with Cisco for establishment of the “Cisco Global Center for Intelligent Urbanisation” in Songdo International Business District (IBD), a 1,500-acre new city being developed off the coast of Incheon by Gale International and POSCO E&C.
The Cisco Global Center for Intelligent Urbanisation, the company’s first center to be focused solely on Intelligent Urbanisation, is to be established within the Northeast Asia Trade Tower (NEATT), Songdo IBD’s signature commercial building. The Center will drive innovation with new solutions as part of Intelligent Urbanisation, Cisco’s recently launched global initiative to help cities use the network as the next utility to optimize their resources for long-term growth and quality of life. The Center will feature a training facility that will utilize Cisco’s Intelligent Urbanisation Labs concept.
IFEZ, which was designated as Korea’s first Free Economic Zone by the Government in August 2003, pursues diverse projects to develop Incheon as an international city that fully supports a wide range of economic activities. IFEZ is securing the foundation to be a leading international city by 2010 with the aim of being the best place, not only in Korea but also in the world, for companies to do business as well as providing an eco-friendly city for its residents.