"Parking Lot Regulations for Data Centers? Changes Must Be Made"... Public and Private Sectors United to Ease AI Infrastructure Regulations

Minister Park Baekhoon Visits Naver Gak for First Corporate Engagement, Hosts Key AI Infrastructure Firms Meeting
Government Promises "Active Review" of Private Sector Concerns, Including Streamlining Permits and Securing Power
"Price Competitiveness Is Key"... Government to Secure 50,000 GPUs, All-Out Effort on Infrastructure
Rapid Policy Alternatives Proposed, Including Long-Term Lease Models

Science and ICT Minister Bae Kyunghoon is delivering a greeting at the 'Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center On-site Meeting' held on the morning of the 24th at Naver Data Center in Sejong Special Self-Governing City. Photo by Ministry of Science and ICT

The government has reaffirmed its strong commitment to revising regulations that hinder the spread of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure to better reflect current realities. In response to industry criticism that general building regulations, such as mandatory parking lots and installation of sculptures, do not align with the realities of the AI infrastructure industry, Minister of Science and ICT Park Baekhoon stated, "That is a valid point," and added, "We will resolve what can be resolved."

On July 24, Minister Park visited Naver's large-scale AI data center "Gak Sejong" in Sejong Special Self-Governing City to inspect key facilities and held a meeting with experts from leading companies, academia, and associations representing the AI industry. This was the first on-site visit related to the "Leap to Become One of the Top Three AI Powerhouses," a key pledge of the Lee Jaemyung administration.

At the site, issues such as institutional, permitting, and power infrastructure challenges encountered during the construction of data centers were intensively raised. Lee Junhee, CEO of Samsung SDS, pointed out, "We are required to build large parking lots in facilities where there are almost no employees," and emphasized, "It is necessary to review regulations such as mandatory installation of parking lots and sculptures, which currently apply to general buildings, to better fit the characteristics of the AI industry." In response, Minister Park said, "Along with streamlining the permitting process, we will thoroughly review regulatory constraints."

Power supply and land issues were also cited as on-site challenges. Kim Donghoon, CEO of NHN Cloud, stated, "If the government secures power and land in advance and provides them through long-term leases, companies can build AI infrastructure at much lower costs and provide public services at more affordable prices." Park Sungyul, Head of Innovation Group at LG Uplus, added, "If we utilize infrastructure that the private sector has already secured or is in the process of obtaining permits for, we can reach a global level within three years."

The need for special legislation to expand AI infrastructure such as data centers also emerged as a key issue. Park Yoonkyu, President of the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), and Kang Junghyup, President of the Korea Data Center Council, emphasized, "Data centers are the social overhead capital (SOC) of the AI era, but the current system is outdated. There is a need for a legal framework to comprehensively address chronic issues such as power supply and civil complaints."

On this day, Minister Park identified "cost" as the core of competitiveness in the data center industry, stating, "To compete with overseas cloud service providers (CSPs), we must ultimately secure price competitiveness. In that sense, supporting GPUs is a strategy to establish a market foundation." The government has already secured 10,000 GPUs this year and has set a plan to expand this to 50,000 units within five years.

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