Andong, a city in the Gyeongbuk province of South Korea, declared on July 7 that they’ve been granted a permit to operate a free trade zone for industrial hemp. They further declared that they would manage their services by a blockchain-based platform.

According to Newspim, Gyeongbuk’s governor, Lee Chul-woo, held a press conference to unveil the permit for the city, enabling them to run the “Special Industrial Hemp Free Zone.” This zone intends to offer a new model of regional specialized industries by executing smart farming and high-tech bioindustry solutions.

Overseeing the industrial hemp production with Blockchain

The government eased the terms of a 70-year-old narcotics law to allow for the industrial production of cannabis in particular areas. All operations will be managed by the unnamed blockchain platform, which is supposed to launch after the infrastructure in the Gyeongsan’s free trade zone is achieved. Earlier, the existing hemp industry only provided for textiles and seeds. The new designation will provide the industrial area to build a high value biomaterials market by the industrialization of medical hemp.

The blockchain-based platform will offer production line tracking solutions, classifying the products by categories of quality, origin, and final destination. Lee said about the project in a statement, “This special regulatory zone has a special meaning different from that of the existing special zone in that it seeks a rational industrialization plan for narcotic drugs. We will grow more so that the company can write a new history overflowing.”

Latest Blockchain’s adoption developments in South Korea

In Busan, a private-public consortium in South Korea declared its plan to develop a blockchain-powered medical tourism platform. No deadline for the launch is recently set. It was reported that the second-largest city in South Korea has also started an identification app that utilizes a public blockchain to check citizen information. Coinplug developed the app, a Korean startup operating within the regulatory sandbox of the Busan blockchain regulation-free zone.