Page 67 - U4SSC Case study Daegu, Korea (Republic of), February 2022

In view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Daegu City has adopted healthcare policies to:

• cover the medical expense of low-income households;

• provide health support for pregnant women and infants; and
• ensure vaccinations for the high-risk and vulnerable sections of the population.

7 Daegu KPI data analysis

7.1 Introduction

"Daegu City has been given an opportunity to become the centre of the IT industry in Korea.
We will be providing full administrative and financial support so that we can emerge as the new
incubator for start-up businesses."
Kwon Young-jin, Mayor of the Daegu Metropolitan City Government.

A smart sustainable city is one in which technology is integrated into the city’s operations. Such a
city is able to provide information to inhabitants and decision makers to enhance the lives of its
inhabitants . Most smart city ventures are initiated through a feasible implementation plan that
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defines problems to be solved with realistic expectations, in keeping with the needs of inhabitants.
Daegu has made exemplary progress to becoming smarter and more sustainable, with a realistic
plan and significant commitment from government, industry and its inhabitants.

Showing a deep commitment at the national level to implement ICTs as the basis for a new economy
and to overcome the digital divide between urban and rural areas of the country, in 2004, the
Republic of Korea’s politicians decided to roll out the Broadband Convergence Network (BcN) and
the country was subsequently considered a pioneer in connecting even the most remote areas. 9

The government’s support for ICT development began as early as the 1990s, with the advent of the
Internet era. By the late 1990s, the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity & Promotion (KADO) was
set up to increase access to the Internet and provide digital literacy training to more than 10 million
inhabitants to make them Internet ready. 10

The Daegu Smart City plan defines strategies, problems and solutions and integrates several
inhabitant-led programmes to meet urban needs, while ensuring sustainability.

A key to implementing a strategy, plan or project is to use a system to gather feedback to determine
progress and what needs to be updated or changed if project goals are not being met.

U4SSC Case study | Daegu, Korea (Republic of) | February 2022 49