Busan unveils vision to become AI-driven city of the future

Busan city government unveiled its "AI-Driven City of the Future" vision Wednesday morning at Nurimaru APEC House, announcing a three-pronged AI transformation strategy and a plan to attract a global AI hub to the city. Mayor Jeon Jae-soo, Deputy Mayor for Economy Oh Seok-geun, and about 60 representatives from affiliated agencies, universities, research institutes and local businesses attended the event.

The ceremony proceeded in four stages: a presentation of the "AI-Driven City of the Future" vision, a presentation of the global AI hub attraction strategy, the signing of MOUs to support the hub bid, and a discussion on the vision and strategies.

Under the overarching vision of making Busan "an AI-leading city where residents feel the difference and industries grow," the city will pursue three core strategies: building an AI city that residents can feel in their daily lives, accelerating AI transformation to drive industrial growth, and establishing the AI infrastructure that powers Busan.

To build an AI city that residents can feel, the city will create a youth AI hub, develop and broaden the pool of top AI talent, and roll out AI services closely tied to everyday life — spanning public administration, welfare, transportation, safety and tourism.

To accelerate AI-driven industrial growth, the city plans to pursue a maritime AI transformation, an AI conversion initiative for manufacturing in western Busan, and a physical AI demonstration and commercialization cluster, while extending AI adoption into biotech, content and other sectors.

To build the AI infrastructure that powers Busan, the city will establish an AI transformation governance framework, a global AI innovation hub, and a quantum transformation cluster for the southeastern region, and develop an AI innovation belt linking the North Port, Centum City and Eco Delta City areas.

Alongside this, the city plans to support its global AI hub bid by linking office space in Centum City with residential environments in Eco Delta City and elsewhere, and by providing data center-based AI computing infrastructure as well as demonstration and international cooperation platforms tied to Busan Port, finance, smart city and MICE sectors.

A global AI hub refers to a center that concentrates the AI functions of UN agencies and similar bodies in South Korea to help address shared international challenges such as climate change, healthcare and food security. Under the arrangement, Korea would provide office space, AI infrastructure, and operating conditions including housing, education and medical services, while UN and international organizations would carry out global projects including joint AI research and policy cooperation.

To that end, 17 institutions signed a joint cooperation MOU Wednesday to support Busan's global AI hub bid. The signatories were Busan Metropolitan City, the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea, BNK Financial Group, Korea Water Resources Corporation, Royal Russell School, Bexco, KT Corp., Intel Korea, Megazone Cloud, One Asia Korea, Singangseo Green Substation, Pusan National University, the Busan Information Technology Association, the Busan Venture Business Association, the Busan Research Institute, the Busan Institute for Science and Technology Promotion, and the Busan Information Industry Promotion Agency.

"Fostering the AI industry matters because it in fact changes the lives of residents and transforms local industries," Mayor Jeon said. "We will add AI to the strengths of Busan as the maritime capital and leap forward as an AI-leading city where residents feel the difference and industries grow." He added that the city would bring together industry, academia, research and government to make Busan the ideal home for a global AI hub by integrating office space, residential environments, AI infrastructure, demonstration sites and MICE facilities into a single ecosystem.