Gimcheon wins Ministry of Interior and Safety minister's award at national ICT competition

Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, announced Thursday that it won the Ministry of Interior and Safety minister's award at the 2026 31st Local Government ICT Best Practices Competition, held recently at the Swiss Grand Hotel in Seoul.

Of 33 local governments that submitted entries nationwide, eight finalists were selected through expert review. Gimcheon earned the minister's award after receiving high marks in both public evaluation and on-site assessment.

The city presented its case under the theme "Gimcheon Smart City Go! Go!"

To build smart city infrastructure, Gimcheon has been working to extend its private communications network — originally established in the North Gyeongsang Gimcheon Innovation City — to the older city center near Gimcheon City Hall.

The city also introduced technology to maximize data transmission efficiency while making full use of its existing network, significantly expanding the private network's role beyond CCTV monitoring to cover administrative operations, IoT (Internet of Things) and public Wi-Fi services.

"Gimcheon's private network project achieves both budget savings and administrative efficiency at the same time," Mayor Bae Nak-ho said. "We will continue to broaden the network's reach so we can provide citizens with high-quality communications services."