Busan to Host 2025 World Smart City Expo

Busan, South Korea - The 2025 World Smart City Expo (WSCE), South Korea’s premier platform for urban innovation and smart technology exchange, will be held in the southeastern city of Busan from July 15 to 17. The three-day event, hosted at BEXCO, marks the first time WSCE will take place outside of the capital region since its inception in 2017. While the event has traditionally been held at KINTEX in Goyang, its relocation to Busan this year reflects an effort to broaden regional participation and highlight smart city initiatives emerging across the country.

The WSCE, jointly organized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Ministry of Science and ICT, is a government-led expo that brings together public institutions, private companies, academic researchers, and international organizations to discuss and display emerging solutions to the challenges of urbanization. Since its launch, the event has become a key annual forum for showcasing smart mobility, digital infrastructure, environmental technology, and AI-based city management systems.

Each edition of WSCE is organized around a central theme. For 2025, the theme is “Next City For All,” signaling a focus on inclusive and accessible urban innovation that goes beyond high-end technologies to address social equity, environmental sustainability, and quality of life. The program includes large-scale exhibitions, international conferences, bilateral and multilateral cooperation forums, startup showcases, and investor-matching sessions. In past editions, the expo has drawn more than 38,000 attendees and hundreds of participating organizations from over 70 countries.

This year’s event will feature major Korean corporations such as Korean Air and KT. Korean Air plans to unveil its urban air mobility control system, ACROSS (Air Control and Routing Orchestrated Skyway System), which enables integrated monitoring and management of low-altitude aircraft, including drones. KT will present several of its smart safety and city management platforms, including a 5G-based precision location system and an AI-driven video analytics solution for urban surveillance and emergency response.

Busan’s role as host city goes beyond providing the venue. The city will operate its own exhibition zone, the “Busan Pavilion,” jointly developed with the Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-Water). This area will spotlight the Eco-Delta Smart City, a national pilot project located in western Busan that integrates smart water management, renewable energy, and citizen-centric services. The pavilion will feature a comprehensive model of the pilot city's data infrastructure and governance framework, with an emphasis on sustainability and replicability in other regions.

In addition to the pavilion, Busan plans to present key municipal projects currently in development under its “Smart City Busan” initiative. These include digital twin applications in city planning, AI-based transportation systems, integrated safety control platforms, and environmental monitoring networks. The city also plans to use the expo as an opportunity to engage in international collaboration, particularly with cities and institutions involved in climate resilience and coastal urban design.

According to officials, Busan’s hosting of the 2025 WSCE is intended to strengthen the city’s strategic vision as a future-oriented, livable metropolis. While the expo remains domestically located, this geographic shift highlights the national government’s broader goal of promoting balanced regional development through technology investment and global exposure.

Organizations wishing to participate in the 2025 WSCE can register through the official website (www.worldsmartcityexpo.com) until May 31. The event is open to government agencies, companies, universities, and non-profit organizations involved in smart city-related fields. With preparations underway, the organizers expect the expo to serve not only as a showcase of next-generation technologies but also as a venue for serious dialogue on how digital tools can shape the cities of tomorrow.