Korea selected for Uzbekistan national address registry technical support project
Domestic IT and address-data firms to be backed in overseas expansion, bilateral cooperation framework to follow
South Korea's address system, long shared with other countries through aid programs, has taken its first step as a revenue-generating export contract.
The Ministry of Interior and Safety announced Wednesday that South Korea had been selected for a roughly $330,000 project to provide technical support for building Uzbekistan's national address registry, a contract issued by the Uzbekistan State Committee on Cadastre.
The project is a consulting engagement to modernize the legal, institutional and technical foundations of address administration in Uzbekistan, and was open to bidders worldwide.
South Korea beat out a field of European competitors — including France, Spain, Norway, Poland and Hungary — that remained in contention through the final round of selection.
The government had been laying the groundwork for this win as part of its broader push to take the K-address system overseas, conducting a feasibility study on modernizing Uzbekistan's address system, signing an MOU on address modernization cooperation, and carrying out capacity-building, on-site education and consulting activities.
The Ministry of Interior and Safety said it plans to support the successful completion of the contract and help domestic IT and address-data companies participate in the follow-on main project to build the national address registry, as well as in multilateral development bank-linked projects.
The ministry also plans to support Korean companies in entering the Uzbek market in connection with the address modernization project, and to establish a bilateral exchange and cooperation framework even after the project concludes.
"Winning this Uzbekistan contract is international recognition of the excellence of South Korea's K-address system," Vice Minister of Interior and Safety Kim Min-jae said. "We will continue to strengthen public-private cooperation and support companies in expanding overseas so that K-address can spread to countries around the world as a global standard."
thlee@heraldcorp.com