Minister Kwon Chil-seung Visits Gwangju Unmanned Autonomous Driving Regulatory Sandbox... Continuing On-site Communication

Attended Gwangju AI Startup Camp Opening Ceremony, Emphasized Support for Local AI Startups
Visited Unmanned Autonomous Special Vehicle Regulatory Free Zone Site

Minister Kwon Chil-seung of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups visited a smart farm specializing in eco-friendly vegetable cultivation for people with developmental disabilities located in Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City on the 14th, and communicated with families of people with developmental disabilities. Photo by Ministry of SMEs and Startups

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] On the 14th, Kwon Chil-seung, Minister of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, announced that on the second day of his visit to the Jeonnam and Gwangju regions, he will spend time directly communicating with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small business owners in the Gwangju area.

This visit to Gwangju was carried out following visits to Jeonbuk, Daegu, and Gyeongbuk in June, and was connected to the visit to the Jeonnam region on the 13th. The entire day was dedicated to directly communicating with SMEs and small business owners in Gwangju to reflect their field difficulties in policy.

As his first schedule in Gwangju, Minister Kwon visited a specialized workplace for people with developmental disabilities located in Gwangsan-gu. He had a time of communication with families regarding plans to establish a specialized workplace that provides a stable working environment and jobs for people with developmental disabilities and their families. He then visited the site of an eco-friendly vegetable cultivation smart farm specialized workplace for people with developmental disabilities to inspect plans for establishing startup education field training facilities and startup incubation spaces.

In the afternoon, he attended the opening ceremony of the Gwangju AI Startup Camp, which was remodeled from the old Gwangju-Jeonnam Regional Small and Medium Venture Business Administration office. This space is an open AI-related startup space where entrepreneurs, investors, and startup support organizations gather. The opening ceremony was attended by Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, Assemblyman Song Gap-seok, and other local figures.

At the event, Minister Kwon said, “The opening venue has great significance as it started with the Jeonnam Industrial Technology Institute in 1994 and has supported local SMEs and venture companies for 25 years as the Gwangju-Jeonnam Regional Small and Medium Venture Business Administration,” adding, “We will spare no support to help it become a core institution for AI startup investment in the region.”

For his final schedule, Minister Kwon visited the site of Korea’s first ‘Unmanned Autonomous Special Vehicle (road cleaning vehicle, garbage collection vehicle) Regulatory Free Zone’ to check the progress of demonstration projects. The ‘Gwangju Unmanned Low-Speed Special Vehicle Regulatory Free Zone’ was designated in December 2019 to proactively respond to the commercialization of autonomous vehicles and to secure technology for preempting the commercialization market of special-purpose autonomous vehicles.

Recently, an integrated autonomous driving control center dedicated to unmanned special vehicles was established, building infrastructure for safe demonstrations of unmanned special vehicles based on two-way autonomous driving data that enables remote control beyond simple monitoring.

Minister Kwon stated, “I hope the Unmanned Low-Speed Special Vehicle Regulatory Free Zone, centered in Gwangju Metropolitan City, will unite strongly to promote innovative growth of domestic autonomous vehicle-related parts companies and serve as a forward base taking the first step into the era of unmanned vehicle commercialization.”

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