4th IDB-KRIHS Annual Workshop

Event: ｢4th IDB-KRIHS Annual Workshop｣
Theme: South Korea & LAC: Comparative Experiences in Planning & Big Data
Date: Dec. 15, 2016 (Thu.)
Venue: IDB HQ, B-502 (Washington, D.C.)

The Global Development Partnership Center (GDPC) of KRIHS on Dec. 15 (Thu.) co-hosted the fourth Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-KRIHS Annual Workshop with the IDB at the latter’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The event saw both institutions share the results of their cooperative activities, big data-related research and continuous cooperation plans. Around 40 IDB staff and visiting KRIHS employees attended the workshop.

Juan Pablo Bonilla, Manager of the IDB’s Climate Change and Sustainable Development Sector, gave the welcoming speech at the workshop, followed by KRIHS President Kim Dongju’s opening speech. Kim stressed the importance of the cooperative activities of both institutions and cooperation between Korea and Latin America in housing, transportation, national policy and governance. Andres Blanco, IDB Senior Specialist, then compared the economic growth and urbanization processes of Korea and Latin America. He also suggested five sectors for potential cooperation and announced the results of cooperative activities between IDB and KRIHS.

The first session saw discussion of available measures at the time of planning and policymaking using big data analysis results, after which KRIHS Senior Researcher Hwang Myunghwa gave a presentation on an analytical study of vulnerable living areas due to population decrease using big data and another on corporate integration and connecting patterns. KRIHS Senior Researcher Yoon Seoyoun then gave a presentation on the results of her analysis of floating population patterns through mobile telecommunication big data and assessment of traffic demand by region using highway TCS data. For IDB, Patricio Zambrano-Barragán, Housing and Urban Development Specialist, presented the case studies of four cities in Argentina and Brazil that plan to use big data. In the discussion session, GDPC Managing Director Chung Ilho, KRIHS Researcher Chung Jinkyu and Mauricio Bouskela, IDB Senior Specialist in the Competitiveness and Innovation Division, joined the discussion on big data's advantages, methodology, capacity building and financing for privacy concerns and forecasting, and public-private sector cooperation.

The second session was a time to share the results of the overseas specialists program. Pedro Abramo, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, gave a presentation on a study of the statuses of informal settlements in Latin America and Korea and comparison of the results of policy plans. Natalia da Silveira Arruda, professor at the University of Antioquia in Colombia, gave a presentation on a plan to apply Korea's transit-oriented development (TOD), which is utilized in the Seoul metropolitan area, to Medellin and vicinity. And Alejandra Trejo, professor at the College of Mexico, gave a lecture on the case study of Korea's development of economic free zones and the implications for Mexico. In the subsequent discussion session, GDPC Managing Director Chung, KRIHS Researcher Chung and IDB Housing and Urban Development Specialist Nora Libertun discussed the results of improvement measures proposed by the studies.

In the closing ceremony, Director Hwang Jang-hoon (Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance, dispatched to IDB) shared the cooperative operations of Korea and Latin America over the years and stressed the importance of cooperation among Korea, Latin America and IDB for urban development in Latin America. KRIHS President Kim Dongju then thanked the IDB for its efforts to host the workshop and explained the importance of KRIHS-IDB cooperation. Meanwhile, the operations conference held the day before saw both sides engage in in-depth discussions on plans for next year’s operations.
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