May 29, 2020 Appeal for Regional Public Entities Supported under FY2020 Project to Promote Planning and Promotion Structure Building for Regional IoT Implementation Organizing (Local Government IoT Implementation Type)

  The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) has decided to make an appeal from today through July 3, 2020, for regional public entities supported under a project to promote planning and promotion structure building for regional IoT implementation organizing.

1. Project overview

1. Project purpose and contents

This project (local government IoT implementation type) targets local governments that wish to utilize advanced technologies, i.e., AI and ICT, and improve work efficiency while automating and saving labor that contributes to work efficiency improvements. So far, their efforts are not making progress. The project identifies ICT/IoT resolutions of issues, formulates plans that include trial calculations of the cost-effectiveness of local governments that will put AI/ICT into practical use, and supports the construction of promotion systems to execute the plans.
MIC expects that plans formulated through this project will be actively utilized in the future for the implementation of local independent projects of target supported organizations, formulation of data utilization promotion plans of the municipal and private sectors, and applications for various subsidy projects.

2. Support contents

The main support contents are specified below. The support contents and the results obtained from the support may be opened to the public.

• 1.
  Conducting training and consultation meetings by support contractors (twice in total planned)
• 2.
  Consultations provided by support contractors

2. Application method

1. Targets

This project provides support to local governments that intend to take the following initiatives.

• Formulating a plan to put AI/ICT into practical use by the end of the current fiscal year.
• Participating in the two workshops/consultations and a final result report meeting (held for one day at each Regional Bureau of Telecommunications, or the Okinawa Office of Telecommunications in the case of Okinawa, in February 2021).
• Local governments supported by the following project are excluded.
  Project to Promote Planning and Promotion Structure Building for Regional IoT Implementation Organizing (FY2018 and FY2019)
  (https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/joho_tsusin/eng/pressrelease/2019/4/19_02.html)

2. Submission deadline

No later than 5:00 pm on Friday, July 3, 2020

3. Method of application

Apply according to the application guidelines (https://www.soumu.go.jp/main_sosiki/joho_tsusin/eng/pressrelease/2020/pdf/000689474.pdf ) (described in Japanese only).

3. Selection of local public entities to be supported

In the project to promote planning and promotion structure building for regional IoT implementation organizing (local government IoT implementation type), MIC will select approximately 50 to 100 local public entities based on documents submitted by them. To be specific, about four to ten groups from the area of each Regional Bureau of Telecommunications or the Okinawa Office of Telecommunications in the case of Okinawa (11 locations in total).

4. Announcement of selection results

MIC will announce the selection results by the end of July 2020 on its website.