Busan, North Gyeongsang Province jointly designated maritime leisure regulation-free zone

Busan and North Gyeongsang Province have been jointly designated a "new maritime leisure wide-area linked regulation-free zone" by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups following a review by the ministry's Regulation-Free Zone Committee, the city announced Tuesday.

The zone, jointly planned by Busan and North Gyeongsang Province, covers 682.23 square kilometers — spanning the sea area from Cheongsapo to Busan New Port and the Yeongil Bay waters off Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province. The designation runs from Tuesday through Dec. 31, 2030.

Within the zone, new maritime leisure technologies will be tested in real sea conditions, including autonomously navigating leisure vessels, AI-based maritime safety control systems, unmanned water rescue robots, underwater drones and unmanned surface vehicles.

The designation opens the door to testing autonomous and unmanned technologies under a regulatory framework that has until now assumed human operation. Under a special exemption to the Water Leisure Safety Act — which requires a licensed operator to directly control any motorized water leisure craft — an autonomous navigation system meeting certain safety standards will be recognized as the controlling entity, relaxing the mandatory direct-control requirement for license holders.

This will allow real-sea verification of autonomous navigation technologies including self-piloting, collision avoidance, and automatic deceleration and stopping. Four demonstration exemptions overseen by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Coast Guard will also apply — among them, recognizing unmanned water rescue robots as legitimate rescue agents and temporarily easing crewing requirements under the Ship Officers Act for unmanned surface vehicles and underwater drones.

Busan and North Gyeongsang Province plan to leverage each region's strengths to build a full-cycle maritime leisure industry ecosystem covering technology development, demonstration and commercialization.

Busan will draw on its shipbuilding, marine and maritime ICT industries as well as its ports, marinas and beaches to test AI-based maritime object recognition and hazard assessment, precision location-based integrated coastal and port safety control, and underwater drone and unmanned surface vehicle monitoring of the marine environment and safety. North Gyeongsang Province, home to research institutions in robotics and marine mobility and offering open-sea and natural maritime environments, will lead core technology development in autonomous navigation and underwater robotics, along with equipment manufacturing and basic performance and safety verification.

The designation is also expected to drive growth and commercialization in Busan's maritime industry. According to the Korea Maritime Institute, Busan's maritime tourism market generated 6.38 trillion won ($4.64 billion) in consumer spending in 2024 — the largest in the country — and the city is home to about 30,000 maritime industry businesses and more than 160,000 workers.

The city plans to apply autonomous navigation, AI and underwater robotics technologies proven in the zone to real-world settings such as ports, marinas and beaches, accelerating commercialization and market entry for companies and spurring investment and job creation in the local maritime industry. It also intends to expand a prevention-focused maritime safety service market using AI-powered hazard detection, automatic avoidance and rescue technologies.

"This designation is a starting point for creating a new market in the future maritime leisure industry by connecting Busan's maritime industry and port infrastructure with North Gyeongsang Province's research and development capabilities," Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo said. "We will combine autonomous navigation, AI and robotics with Busan's shipbuilding and maritime industries to develop Busan into a global leader in marine mobility."