Mayor Lee Gang-deok Lays Foundation for Pohang's Great Leap Forward... Establishing a Base to Drive the Region's Future

POSTECH Medical School Establishment, National AI Computing Center Attraction, and Transportation Network Construction Efforts

Mayor Lee Kang-deok of Pohang attended the ‘2025 Pohang Chamber of Commerce and Industry New Year Meeting’ held at Hyoja Art Hall on the 6th and stated that this year, the city administration will focus its capabilities on laying the foundation to design a sustainable future for the Pohang region.

Mayor Lee Gang-deok of Pohang is delivering a congratulatory speech at the '2025 Pohang Chamber of Commerce and Industry New Year's Meeting' held on the 6th. Photo by Pohang City

At the event, Mayor Lee emphasized that he will devote efforts to preparing infrastructure for projects that will dramatically transform the future of Pohang, including ▲establishing the POSTECH Medical School ▲attracting the National AI Computing Center ▲building a metropolitan transportation network in preparation for the Daegu-Gyeongbuk integrated new airport era, and he urged the heads of local institutions, organizations, and business representatives, including Gyeongbuk Province, to unite their efforts.

The mayor stressed that although the uncertain domestic political situation has made it difficult to establish the POSTECH Medical School, they will concentrate regional capabilities aiming to allocate medical school quotas for the 2026 academic year.

The city plans to closely monitor the trends among the political circles, government, and the Korean Medical Association regarding the expansion of medical school quotas and will actively respond to the allocation of medical school quotas together with local politicians, Gyeongbuk Province, and POSTECH.

Additionally, the city intends to proactively attract the ‘National AI Computing Center,’ a core policy of the national AI strategy, to build AI industry infrastructure and strive to take the lead in the fierce global competition.

The AI Computing Center is infrastructure that combines advanced AI semiconductors, dedicated programs, and other hardware and software to derive useful results from vast amounts of data. The government plans to establish two centers outside the metropolitan area with a scale of 2 trillion won each through public-private joint investment.

Pohang City submitted a proposal to Gyeongbuk Province last year, comprehensively outlining the necessity, grounds, and justification for attracting the AI Computing Center to Pohang, and is continuing consultations with companies to establish a Special Purpose Corporation (SPC), which is essential for the attraction.

Furthermore, the city plans to devote efforts to expanding the railway transportation network, which is directly linked to securing urban competitiveness and national growth.

In particular, in preparation for the Daegu-Gyeongbuk integrated new airport era, which will bring revolutionary changes in transportation, logistics, and tourism, the city is prioritizing the construction of an inland railway between Pohang and the new airport and will focus administrative power to ensure its inclusion in the 5th National Railway Network Construction Plan in 2025.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “We will make this year a foundation for a great leap forward for Pohang by steadily sowing the seeds of hope for the region’s future,” adding, “We will focus our capabilities on making Pohang a better place to live by proactively responding not only to new industries such as bio and digital but also to the expansion of SOC infrastructure.”

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