ICT News Panorama With the successful organization of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit last year as the stepping stone, the Busan City plans to host the prestigious 17th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) which will be of the biggest size in the world for its kind. Busan has requested to organize the 17th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) to be held in the year 2010. AT present, it is competing with Melbourne, Australia, for the final selection. An official of the Transportation Planning Department of Busan City said, "We submitted a letter of intent for the inducement of the congress (The 17th World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)) in October last year. And we have been steadily carrying out PR activities ever since." He explained, "The significance of hosting it is that world-class technologies and equipments of intelligent transport systems (ITS) can be seen in one place and that the image of the high-tech convention city of Busan can be publicized widely." This World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) will be the world's biggest conference and exhibition in the field of intelligent information systems in which over 5,000 official participants from over 50 countries will take part. Until now, there have been 12 congresses in the three continents of Europe, North America, and Asia, with the last one being held in San Francisco last year. This year the congress will be held in London, Great Britain. The inspection team for conducting surveys of the candidate cities for the selection of the city for the organization of the congress visited Busan City on a three nights and four days schedule from February 22. Taking this as an opportunity, the policy of the Busan City is to exert all-out efforts for the inducement of the World Congress on ITS. This is because it is forecast that if the city succeeds in inducing the World Congress on ITS there will be great positive effects on the acceleration of the development of Busan in the ITS field and, at the same time, on the improvement of the status of the city as a city for tourism and conventions. Especially, the establishment of the high-tech transportation system within the city of Busan until now can be publicized both internally and externally. And, through the congress and an exhibition, the technological know-how that needs supplementation can be benchmarked. Also, because of the exhibition technology and the special features of the items of exhibition of this congress, the congress has been held only in big cities of advanced countries in North America, Europe, and others. Hence, it is expected that the image of Busan as a high-tech city will be improved. And, there are high expectations that the large size spectators, other than the official companies participating and officials concerned, will contribute to the establishment of the image of Busan as an international city for tourism and conventions as pursued by the city. Accordingly, the Busan City and ITS Korea will concentrate on the explanation of the successful organization of ITU (International Telecommunication Union) Telecom Asia in 2004 and the APEC summit last year to the inspection team. They will introduce BEXCO, an international convention facility, the Nurimaru APEC House, a dining facility, the Asiad Main Stadium, the Suyeongman Yacht Marina, and others. Next, they plan to concentrate on highlighting ITS facilities, including the present situation of the progress of the Busan u-City project, the Information Center of the National Police Agency, the Busan Port Automation System, the Freight Automation System of the Busan Regional Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Office, the high-tech transportation information system, etc.