Emphasizing Gangneung's image as a leading mobility city incorporating its unique culture and regional characteristics

Expansion of ITS-related networks… Encouraging participation in the 2026 Gangneung ITS World Congress

Gangneung City is stepping directly onto the international stage to promote active exchanges, aiming to strengthen its capabilities to lead the advanced mobility sector and enhance its global recognition as the host city of the '2026 Gangneung ITS World Congress'.

Gangneung Mayor Kim Hong-kyu, along with officials and representatives of the ITS World Congress, will participate in the '2023 ITS World Congress' held in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China from Monday, the 16th to Friday, the 20th, continuing their active endeavors.

Under the theme "Toward an Intelligent Society," the Suzhou World Congress will be attended by approximately 10,000 experts from about 35 countries in the field of ITS to discuss sustainable development in the transportation sector, autonomous and cooperative mobility, and integrated transportation systems, and will conduct various programs including demonstrations of advanced technologies and academic presentations.

During this general assembly, a promotional hall will be directly operated separately from the Korean Pavilion in the exhibition hall to showcase Gangneung City’s unique culture and regional characteristics, and to emphasize the image of a leading mobility city equipped with sufficient capabilities and facilities.

While staying on-site, Mayor Kim Hong-kyu will sequentially meet with the Board of Directors of the ITS Asia-Pacific Congress from Indonesia and Malaysia, the President of the China ITS Association, officials from the Dubai World Congress, and the Director of the Asia-Pacific Secretariat from Japan to engage in active promotion.

In particular, we plan to intensively highlight the unique strengths of the Gangneung World Congress, emphasizing that unlike previous World Congresses held in major cities, it will be held in a relatively smaller city to provide an opportunity to benchmark new ITS models suitable for small and medium-sized cities.

Through this, we plan to expand the ITS-related network and raise Gangneung City's international recognition to encourage more countries and related organizations to actively participate in the 2026 Gangneung ITS World Congress, while also establishing a win-win strategy through mutual cooperation.

In addition, considering that this General Assembly is the last World Congress in the Asian region to be held before the 2026 Gangneung ITS World Congress, we plan to acquire operational know-how through sufficient sessions and exhibition inspections, and identify the latest ITS policy and technology trends to make thorough preparations for hosting the General Assembly.

Mayor Kim Hong-kyu said, “Gangneung City is strengthening its image as Korea’s representative leading city for mobility by equipping itself with large-scale ITS infrastructure and proactively building an environment friendly to advanced mobility, such as autonomous vehicles and urban air mobility (UAM),” adding, “We will certainly successfully host the 2026 World Congress through active exchanges with various organizations and thorough preparations.”

Meanwhile, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) scientifically and automatically operate and manage transportation systems by developing and utilizing advanced transportation technologies, such as electronics, control, and communications, as well as traffic information, for transportation means and facilities, ultimately improving transportation efficiency.The purpose is to improve performance and safety.

Concerns for public safety, increasing traffic congestion, growing government policy support for effective traffic management, and the global development of smart cities are key factors contributing to the growth of the ITS market, and market research firm Fortune Business Insights projected that the ITS market will grow from approximately $22.91 billion in 2021 to $35.8 billion in 2026.

Accordingly, e4ds news organized an event to explore the importance of ITS in improving traffic efficiency and safety, as well as the latest technological trends in C-ITS aimed at supporting road infrastructure to overcome the limitations of autonomous vehicles.

On November 1, 2023, this magazine hosted the e4ds Automotive Conference and organized sessions to explore insights into the history and future of ITS, standardization trends, C-ITS and 5G V2X technology trends, radar, security technology, and autonomous driving technology trends.

Further details can be found on the ' 2023 e4ds Automotive Conference ' page.