Busan Port Authority Strengthens Internal Innovation Capabilities for Sustainable Growth

Busan Port Authority

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Jong-hyo] Busan Port Authority (BPA) announced on the 25th that it has set an innovation goal of 'Creating social value at Busan Port through innovation with the people' and will systematically diagnose its internal innovation level to promote this.

A BPA official explained, "Autonomous innovation is essential to realize social value and strengthen publicness centered on the institution's core business," adding, "Especially during the period when social activities are restrained due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), we aim to systematically diagnose the institution's innovation capabilities and the level of innovation activities to ensure comprehensive innovation management without gaps in the future."

The reason BPA focuses on internal innovation capabilities is that many of the innovation activities so far have originated from the ideas of field workers directly involved in the operation and construction sites of Busan Port.

The 'Social Value and Innovation Task Force' is a representative example. Last year, the task force, composed of 23 employees from various departments, discovered and promoted over 40 innovation tasks linked to on-site work. Among them, the construction of a heating and cooling system using seawater heat as renewable energy and the cruise pop-up market were selected as excellent innovation cases for their contributions to the environment and local economy.

Recently, as innovation policies emphasize public participation, strengthening internal innovation capabilities has become more important to lead change together with the private sector.

Accordingly, Busan Port Authority plans to derive diagnostic areas of the institution's innovation activities according to the P-D-C-A system, have experts diagnose the innovation level of employees, identify points for improvement in future innovation activities, and strengthen employees' innovation capabilities.

Nam Ki-chan, BPA President, emphasized, "Endless effort is required for innovative growth that the public and stakeholders can feel through Busan Port," adding, "For this, BPA employees must possess innovation capabilities at a global level."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.