Colombian central and local government officials pose for a picture last June at the Busan Metropolitan City Transport Service Center.
For many years now, Medellin has been rising from the scourge of drug wars past and has been growing beyond the scars left by Pablo Escobar himself. Colombia's second city is now being transformed into a modern metropolis with a public transport network adapted from Korea's intelligent transport system (ITS).
Four Medellin decision makers, including the chair of the city council and the head of the city's transport department, visited Korea from Aug. 29 to Sept. 2 as part of an ITS master plan for Medellin organized by the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The ministry has been working on the ITS master plan for Medellin since March this year. The Colombian city faces serious urban congestion and has been working with the Korean ministry to deal with the city's traffic by adopting the Korean transportation system.
During their visit, the officials inspected Korea's urban transportation systems, including public transportation networks, and observed how the cooperative ITS works. Knowledge and experience of developing and managing ITS that can help improve urban traffic were also shared with them during their visit.
Both last year and again this year, the Latin American city has sent groups of people in charge of transportation policies to Korea to learn from its knowledge and experience of developing and managing transportation systems. Ever since the Colombian capital, Bogota, adopted an urban transportation card system developed by a Korean company, LG CNS, last year, more Colombian cities, like Medellin and Barranquilla, are showing an interest in adopting Korean urban transportation systems.
The ministry said that the officials' visit to Korea will be a good opportunity for them to learn what they want and to reflect on the master plan for their city. The ministry also said that there are now more and more business partnerships being forged between Korean and Colombian companies.
By Chang Iou-chung
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photo: Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
icchang@korea.kr