Gwangju City Holds Meeting with Regional Private Chairpersons of the Presidential 4th Industrial Revolution Committee

Mayor Lee Yong-seop: "We Will Lead the 4th Industrial Revolution by Harnessing Gwangju's Unique DNA"

On the afternoon of the 15th, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, attended the 'Central and Local 4th Industrial Revolution Committee Private Sector Chairpersons Meeting' held at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center and took a commemorative photo with committee members including Jang Seok-young, 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, Yoon Seong-ro, Chairman of the Presidential 4th Industrial Revolution Committee, and Jeong Byeong-seok, President of Chonnam National University. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] A venue was held in Gwangju to share the policy achievements of South Korea's 4th Industrial Revolution.

The Presidential Committee on the 4th Industrial Revolution held the first meeting of the central-local 4th Industrial Revolution Committee private chairpersons on the afternoon of the 15th at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center.

The reason the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee held the first central-local private chairpersons meeting in Gwangju is analyzed to be a high evaluation of Gwangju City's bold challenge to lead the development of South Korea's 4th Industrial Revolution and AI industry through projects such as the creation of an ‘AI-centered industrial convergence complex’.

On this day, about 60 people attended, including Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, Jang Seok-young, 2nd Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, Yoon Seong-ro, Chairman of the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee, Jeong Byeong-seok, President of Chonnam National University, 17 private members of the 4th Industrial Revolution Committees from 17 cities and provinces, and the Promotion Committee for Making Gwangju an AI-centered City. The meeting proceeded in the order of introducing the operation direction of the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee, introducing the national AI strategy, presenting regional model cases of the 4th Industrial Revolution, and discussing ways to revitalize the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Gwangju City introduced the ‘AI-centered industrial convergence complex creation project,’ which is being promoted with a scale of 411.6 billion KRW until 2024 as a model case, and pledged to take the lead in South Korea's leap to becoming one of the four major AI industrial powers.

The city emphasized, “AI technology will combine with existing industries to bring changes across society and the economy,” and added, “Like the United States and China, which are making full-scale investments at the national level, we must also hurry to activate the AI industry and secure technological capabilities.”

Gwangju City early incorporated the project to create an AI-based convergence complex into the Moon Jae-in administration’s five-year national operation plan and applied for it as a project exempt from preliminary feasibility study in the government's national balanced development project, which was finally confirmed.

Through this project, the vision of fostering world-class AI companies and leaping to become one of the four major AI powers will be realized. To this end, tasks such as creating AI industrial convergence infrastructure, supporting startups and corporate growth, nurturing convergence talents, and convergence-type research and development (R&D) will be promoted.

The AI industrial convergence infrastructure is a project to create a data center, startup building, and demonstration building on a site area of 46,200㎡ and a total floor area of 24,250㎡. The detailed design will be completed this year, construction will begin, and completion is targeted for 2023.

The data center will have a computing capacity of 88.5PF (8.85 quadrillion operations per second) and a storage capacity of 107PB (storing 1.07 billion 10MB files), equipped with various support environments for AI development. The demonstration building will establish about 80 types of equipment for data collection and analysis and product and service demonstration in the automobile, energy, and healthcare fields.

The startup building will recruit prospective entrepreneurs and support their growth step-by-step through education and consulting, prototype development support, investment fund formation, and global expansion support, serving as an incubator where AI convergence industries sprout.

To nurture convergence talents, a talent growth ladder will be built through the ‘AI+X Convergence Campus,’ which trains AI practical talents linked with local university curricula, and the ‘AI Do Dream’ project, which supports career transitions of workers into the AI field.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop said, “Our citizens of Gwangju have a special DNA of a sense of mission leading the development of the era, strong spirit of challenge and awareness of problems, and creativity and imagination dreaming of a new world. Using this as a driving force, we will lead South Korea’s 4th Industrial Revolution era centered on the AI industry,” and added, “I ask the members of the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee to take a deep interest in Gwangju and add their strength and wisdom.”

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