Gumi Leaps Forward as a Robot City, Aiming to Secure New Growth Engines

Gumi City in Gyeongbuk is accelerating efforts to promote the ‘robot industry,’ one of the future new growth engine industries.

Robot Industry Business Agreement. (From the left, Yeonbaek Lee, CEO of WeRobotics; Ikhwan Jang, Head of LG Electronics BS Business Division; Juchan Ahn, Chairman; Jangho Kim, Mayor; Jaeho Yoon, Chairman; Geonhyeok Lee, Head of Production Division at LIG Nex1; Seongil Hwang, CEO of Gueil Engineering)

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On the 9th local time (the 10th Korean time) in Las Vegas, USA, Gumi City signed a business agreement with four leading domestic robot industry companies to establish a robot industry ecosystem in Gumi City. The companies involved in the agreement are LG Electronics, LIG Nex1, Wirobotics, and Gueil Engineering.

The signing ceremony was attended by Mayor Kim Jang-ho, City Council Chairman Ahn Joo-chan, Chamber of Commerce Chairman Yoon Jae-ho, LG Electronics BS Business Division Head Jang Ik-hwan, LIG Nex1 Production Division Head Lee Geon-hyuk, Wirobotics Co-CEOs Lee Yeon-baek and Kim Yong-jae, and Gueil Engineering CEO Hwang Seong-il.

Through this agreement, Gumi City and the four robot companies agreed to actively cooperate in revitalizing the local economy by fostering the robot industry, localizing parts, creating a technology development ecosystem, nurturing research and development and practical professional manpower, and mutually cooperating for robot production and distribution.

Prior to the robot industry development agreement, a robot industry forum was held featuring keynote presentations on the theme of ‘Prospects of Service Robots’ by Bear Robotics CEO Ha Jung-woo and ‘Beyond Rehabilitation and Productivity to Everyday Life’ by Wirobotics CEO Lee Yeon-baek.

Gumi City expects that this agreement will lay the foundation for adding the robot industry as a core industry following semiconductors and defense industries, while significantly contributing to the creation of an industrial ecosystem for robot-related companies with a production base in the region.

Additionally, Gumi City has designated robots, along with semiconductors, defense, secondary batteries, and the metaverse, as one of the city’s five future advanced strategic industries, putting considerable effort into fostering the robot industry.

Proactively, since last year, Gumi has appointed a ‘robot officer’ to utilize for document delivery and city administration promotion, and it has launched the nation’s first AI service robot distribution support project, targeting local small business owners, demonstrating special dedication to the robot industry.

Mayor Kim Jang-ho said, “There was a time when cars were rare, and no one imagined every household would own a car. In the future, robots will bring a major change to the industrial environment, becoming as common in every home as cars are now. Gumi City will not only create a robot industry ecosystem but also actively attract related companies.”

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