More efficient waste and traffic management systems are among the best practices that ASEAN can adopt from Korea.

The two areas were among the fields in which policy recommendations were proposed at the recently concluded 2019 ASEAN-Korea Youth Network Workshop which gathered 80 university students from 13 countries for 10 days of lectures, site visits, cultural exchange activities and discussions – all with the aim of building cooperation between ASEAN and Korea in developing sustainable smart cities.

Organised by the Seoul-based ASEAN-Korea Centre in partnership with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore, the workshop themed ‘Sustainable Smart Cities: Molding the Young Pioneers of Smart & Innovative Urban Solutions,’ also included students from Japan and China who were recommended by the ASEAN-Japan Centre and ASEAN-China Centre, respectively. The workshop was conducted in Korea from 8-12 July before moving to Singapore from 13-18 July.

According to Dr Tan Teck Boon, Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Science and Technology Studies Programme at RSIS, the main thing that Korea and ASEAN smart cities share is a deep reliance on digital technology to solve urban challenges and bring about a better quality of life for their citizens – with waste recycling among the best practices that Southeast Asia can adopt from Korea.

“Individual households in Korea take waste recycling very seriously thanks to the government’s policy towards it,” Dr. Tan told The ASEAN Post. “As ASEAN countries undergo rapid urbanisation, recycling at the household level will take much pressure off their increasingly stressed waste management systems,” he added.