Busan City Applies for 'Next-Generation Marine Mobility Global Innovation Zone' Contest

Submitted to the Ministry of SMEs on the 13th, Applying Negative Regulations, Establishing Overseas Demonstration Bases, and Supporting Overseas Certification

Aiming to Lead the Global Market in Advanced Marine Mobility Technologies and Foster Dee

Busan City is challenging itself to become the first in Korea to be designated as a global innovation zone that "removes all regulations."

The city announced that it submitted the application for the "Busan Next-Generation Marine Mobility Global Innovation Zone" to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the 13th.

The global innovation zone is an advanced version of the regulatory-free zone implemented in 2019. It applies systems aligned with international standards (global standards) for regulations, demonstrations, certifications, permits, and insurance to support the development of new products and overseas expansion in future technology fields.

In the designated zone, a comprehensive negative regulation system is applied, allowing all demonstrations using new technologies in the designated fields except for explicitly listed restrictions and prohibitions. It also supports the establishment of overseas demonstration bases and export-customized overseas certifications.

The "Busan Next-Generation Marine Mobility Global Innovation Zone" applied for this time aims to secure a global market lead in advanced technologies in the next-generation marine mobility sector, which enables safe and efficient cargo transport and transfer through decarbonization and digitalization of marine spaces, and to foster deep-tech and unicorn companies in related industries.

The city has already been designated as a marine mobility regulatory-free zone (July 2020) and an ammonia eco-friendly energy regulatory-free zone (November 2021), actively promoting various projects in the eco-friendly and smart ship sectors.

Before applying for this contest, on the 12th, Busan City signed a business agreement to promote the next-generation marine mobility global innovation zone with HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (Director of Future Technology Research Institute Kim Seong-jun), HMM (CEO Kim Kyung-bae), EcoPro HN (CEO Kim Jong-seop), Korea Maritime and Ocean University (President Do Deok-hee), Korean Register (Chairman Lee Hyung-cheol), and Busan Technopark (Director Kim Hyung-gyun) to secure a foundation for promotion and cooperation of next-generation marine mobility-related projects.

The main contents of the business agreement include ▲ linked cooperation for fostering the next-generation marine mobility industry in the Busan area, such as eco-friendly ships ▲ open innovation and overseas expansion support linked with large corporations and local SMEs ▲ support for domestic and international demonstrations in the next-generation marine mobility field and establishment of mutual cooperation systems ▲ and co-growth with local equipment companies in the marine mobility sector.

Prior to the application in the next-generation marine mobility field, it is significant that a cooperation system among local governments, companies, and regional innovation institutions was established to build an overseas maritime demonstration system between large and small-medium enterprises and to foster promising deep-tech companies in the region.

The representatives of each institution that signed the agreement stated, "We will strengthen collaboration for global certification and overseas demonstration of the next-generation marine mobility industry and complete the demonstration commercialization promotion system to create synergy effects."

Additionally, on September 7, Busan City, Korean Register, KR Hellas (Greece), and Busan Technopark signed a business agreement to support "global certification acquisition," such as obtaining "CE certification" for related companies.

CE certification is an integrated standard certification mark indicating compliance with the European Union (EU) Council directives related to safety, health, environment, and consumer protection. To sell products in the EU market, CE marking must be mandatorily displayed on the product.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun said, "Through the designation of this innovation zone, we will proactively respond to the paradigm shift toward eco-friendly and smart systems and enable Busan to acquire international competitiveness to lead the next-generation marine mobility industry."

Busan City Hall.

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