[1st Anniversary of Mayor Kang Gijeong of Gwangju in the 8th Civilian Government]④ AI and Future Cars Propel the City as a Future Industry Hub

Google, Nvidia, Amazon, and Others Focus on AI-Based Mobility

Fostering 9 Key Industries... Accelerating the Creation of Future Car National Industrial Complex

Global companies such as Google, Nvidia, Amazon, and Bloomberg are paying attention to Gwangju. When asked to Google’s AI chatbot ‘Bard’ “Which city is the representative AI city of South Korea?”, it answers ‘Gwangju Metropolitan City.’

At the Future Car Vision Declaration Ceremony in Gwangju last March, Paul Wilson, Head of Google Cloud Public Sector Asia-Pacific, stated, “Gwangju is an automobile industry city, and currently it is a city with many opportunities centered on unmanned autonomous driving and demonstrations. There will be many collaboration opportunities for mobility projects between Gwangju and Google Cloud,” which also provides an answer.

Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Kang Gi-jung) is promoting a major industrial transformation with AI and future cars as its two wings. Especially, in the era of future car transformation centered on software, it is predicted that the synergy effect will be great through cooperation between Gwangju, centered on AI and data, and global companies.

◆Opening the ‘100 trillion won era’ by 2030 with 9 representative industries

Gwangju City has presented the ‘Gwangju Representative Industry 2030 Vision,’ aiming to achieve a production value of 101 trillion won, employment of 110,000 people, and added value of 33 trillion won by 2030 by creating a future industry opportunity city together with citizens and companies.

In response to actively coping with global economic and industrial trends, new government industrial policies, and the goals of the 8th local government administration, it was necessary to newly redefine Gwangju’s industrial policies in response to internal and external environmental changes, leading to the establishment of nine representative industries and promotion strategies for Gwangju.

As ‘2 major challenge industries,’ new industries to secure future competitiveness, ▲semiconductors and ▲data industries are fostered; as ‘5 strategic industries,’ to secure national competitiveness based on regional characteristics, ▲mobility, ▲artificial intelligence (AI), ▲cultural contents, ▲energy, and ▲medi-healthcare industries are developed. Additionally, as ‘2 foundational industries,’ ▲optical convergence and home appliances and ▲smart root industries, which are the backbone of the region, are continuously grown.

Through the vision announcement, Gwangju City also presented three major promotion strategies and ten implementation plans to leap forward as an advanced science industrial city, using representative local industries such as mobility, AI, and energy industries as a foothold.

The three major promotion strategies are ▲securing ultra-gap technologies through the advancement of research and development (R&D) capabilities for high value-added industrial transformation, ▲supporting company growth based on demonstration to leap forward as a global future industry hub city, and ▲securing sustainable growth engines through people-centered future value investment. The ten implementation plans lead overseas market development through bold investment to secure ultra-gap leading technologies, support for testing and certification, and support for commercialization of new technologies to make the city a ‘leader in advanced technology.’

◆Creating the AI Industry Convergence ‘K-Valley’

Efforts are being accelerated to create the world’s top-level AI industry convergence K-Valley (district). The goal is to build the best AI innovation hub in AI-centered city Gwangju, realize an AI demonstration city, activate the corporate ecosystem, and complete the ‘Korean-style AI Valley (district).’

To this end, since 2020, Gwangju City has been working on the first phase (2020?2024) of the Gwangju AI cluster being developed in the Advanced 3 District, and based on its achievements, has started establishing the second phase (2025?2029) project strategy to upgrade it into a national AI innovation hub.

The main content is to concentrate infrastructure, companies, talent, and technology, which are core elements of the AI industry convergence ecosystem, based on the analysis of the first phase project’s achievements. The second phase execution strategy includes ▲creating an environment for free startups and corporate growth, ▲creating an environment where top talent and technology can gather, and ▲concentrating investment capital and fostering a collaborative ecosystem.

To ensure that the second phase project continues without interruption after the first phase ends, the city plans to apply for it as a preliminary feasibility study project to the Ministry of Economy and Finance within this year and prepare for securing the project budget without any setbacks.

In particular, efforts will be made to upgrade the national AI data center, where collaboration between companies is possible, and to establish a stable ecosystem foundation by building a business environment for demonstration and acceleration of growth of various AI products and services.

◆Leap to a future car leading city

After the great achievement of attracting a 1 million-pyeong Future Car National Industrial Complex for the first time in 14 years, preparations are underway to leap forward as a future car leading city.

The Future Car National Industrial Complex will be developed on a scale of 1 million pyeong near the Bitgreen National Industrial Complex. Gwangju plans to cluster future car industries such as electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and batteries here to maximize efficiency.

With the Bitgreen Industrial Complex already saturated, Gwangju City, together with the government, is working to significantly shorten the construction period of the national industrial complex to greatly strengthen the future car industry base, accelerate the establishment of a materials, parts, and equipment platform, foster future car electronic parts specialization, and build a next-generation power semiconductor cluster.

Additionally, efforts are underway to attract a ‘materials, parts, and equipment specialized complex’ to create a complete value chain for autonomous vehicle parts by linking the Jingok Industrial Complex and Bitgreen Industrial Complex, where parts companies are concentrated, with the newly developed Future Car National Industrial Complex.

The entire city will be utilized as a performance testbed by developing eco-friendly automobile parts, testing and evaluation infrastructure, and AI-based autonomous driving demonstration equipment. Support for growth at each stage of the future car industry will be expanded, along with customized consulting for crisis response, business restructuring and transformation of parts companies, and industrial expansion through convergence of optical/AI industries and future car industries.

Furthermore, to enhance future car technology capabilities, Gwangju will become a research hub by building digital-based parts development and commercialization platforms.

Through this, Gwangju expects to achieve a 200% increase in parts self-supply rate, a 20% increase in automobile sales, level 4 autonomous driving demonstration, 100 future car transition companies, and create employment for about 250,000 people with an economic effect exceeding 10 trillion won.

Mayor Kang Gi-jung of Gwangju said, “Now, Gwangju urgently needs to develop future competitiveness and transform into a high value-added industrial structure. With AI and future cars as two wings, we will build a techno-pole where technology and talent, industry and demonstration are connected as one, making it a city leading advanced technology, a city where innovative companies are born and grow, and a city where creative talents gather.”

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