Korea Shares Tolling Tech With Malaysia

Yu Jeong-hun, president of Korea Expressway Corporation (left), and Mohamad Hazmir, director-general of the Malaysian Highway Authority (LLM) (right), pose for a commemorative photograph after signing the business agreement at the Gangneung Convention Center on Oct. 20. (Provided by Korea Expressway Corporation) Korea’s multi-lane free-flow tolling technology is set to be introduced on Malaysian expressways. Korea Expressway Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding with the Malaysian Highway Authority on the occasion of the 2026 Gangneung ITS World Congress, laying the groundwork for technology exports through smart expressway cooperation. Korea Expressway Corporation said it signed a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with the Malaysian Highway Authority at the Gangneung Convention Center on Oct. 20 for cooperation in the road and transport sectors. The agreement was pursued to specify working-level cooperation based on an MOU signed by government ministries of the two countries in December last year. The Malaysian Highway Authority is an agency under the local Ministry of Works that is exclusively responsible for establishing toll expressway policy and managing and supervising private operators. Over the next five years, the two sides will join forces in areas including smart expressway management and development, advanced tolling policy, and the establishment of a Smart Traffic Management Center, or TMC, and Intelligent Transport Systems, or ITS. They also plan to broadly expand human and material exchanges, including expressway infrastructure asset management, technology transfer, and education and training. The core of the cooperation is Malaysia’s planned nationwide multi-lane free-flow tolling system, or MLFF, for toll expressways. MLFF is a system in which drivers pay tolls without stopping and without lane-separating structures, and is the same as Korea’s multi-lane Hi-Pass. Korea Expressway Corporation will share with Malaysia the operational know-how it has accumulated since the nationwide launch of Hi-Pass in 2007, including the successful establishment of a one-tolling system and multi-lane Hi-Pass. At present, about 94% of expressway users in Korea use Hi-Pass, and the country’s non-stop toll collection system is regarded as highly advanced. Korea Expressway Corporation has already operated a multi-lane free-flow tolling system on the Almaty Ring Road in Kazakhstan, and has also demonstrated its technological capabilities in the global market by establishing electronic payment systems at sites including the Padma Bridge in Bangladesh. Yu Jeong-hun, president of Korea Expressway Corporation, said he hopes the agreement will serve as an opportunity to strengthen trust between the two institutions and develop into a strategic partnership for building future-oriented expressways.