KT hopes to use tech to help clean up Boracay
KT top brass met with Filipino leaders on
Tuesday to discuss using technology to help in the country’s
cleanup of Boracay, a resort island that
the government recently shut down over tourism-related pollution.
KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu met with top
representatives from the Philippines’ Department of Information .
and Communications Technology (DICT) in
Seoul to discuss ways to cooperate in developing digital technologies
in the island country. The Korean mobile
carrier offered to launch a “Smart Boracay” project aimed at redeveloping the
island’s natural environment and making it a safer and more convenient
destination after the six-month tourism shutdown ends. The island was closed to
tourists by the government starting on April 26, as rapid development and
pollution by visitors have ruined the local environment.
The government plans to demolish illegal
buildings, repair sewage systems and improve telecommunications
and electricity systems during the six
months. The Korean mobile carrier hopes to install high-quality public
wireless internet infrastructure as well
as intelligent closed-circuit television to better monitor the behavior of
tourists. The company also plans to offer
smart energy solutions to help the island track and manage solar
energy generation and consumption.
President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines plans to invest roughly 180
trillion won ($169 billion) into
improving basic infrastructure to invigorate the country’s economy by 2022, when
his term ends. KT sees the project an
opportunity that will help it take part in a series of other
telecommunications
infrastructure projects. “We are
attempting to go global not only by exporting our expertise in
telecommunications
networks, but also by applying the latest
digital technologies to various areas like energy,
data security and safety,”
Hwang said.