Mayor Lee Yong-seop: "We Will Support Startups to Freely Research and Conduct Business"
On the 6th, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, attended the 'Dong-gu AI Healthcare Startup Development Platform Kick-Off' event for the establishment of the Gwangju Artificial Intelligence (AI) Industry Convergence Complex. He took a commemorative photo with guests including Song Gap-seok, Member of the National Assembly, Lee Byung-hoon, Member-elect of the National Assembly, Lim Taek, Dong-gu District Mayor, and Lee Sam-yong, Director of Chonnam National University Hospital. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City
[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] The establishment of a platform to foster AI healthcare startups, one of the core sectors of the 'AI-Centered City Gwangju,' is set to accelerate.
Gwangju Metropolitan City and Dong-gu announced on the 6th that, as part of the 'AI-Centered Industrial Convergence Complex Development Project,' they have launched the 'AI Healthcare Startup Fostering Platform Construction Project' to develop products and commercialize them using hospital and personal medical data.
In the first phase, led by Gwangju City and Dong-gu with participation from Chonnam National University Hospital and the Korea Micro Medical Robot Research Institute, a startup community center will be established at the Dong-gu Startup Support Center, and an open healthcare big data platform will be built at Chonnam National University Hospital. A total of 3.5 billion KRW will be invested to complete the infrastructure by the end of December.
The second phase, a national project with a budget of 15 billion KRW, will establish a product commercialization coordinator center and actively support AI convergence product development and commercialization. The goals include fostering 60 startups, creating 1,500 quality jobs, and generating a regional production inducement effect of 50 billion KRW.
Notably, this is the first model to promote the collection, processing, and platform construction of hospital and personal medical data in the healthcare sector, a key local industry. The medical data generated here will be de-identified and stored and shared in a data center within the AI complex in the future, expected to serve as a catalyst for the Gwangju-type 'AI-Centered Industrial Convergence Complex Development Project.'
Additionally, to support the construction of an AI-based medical data platform, product development, commercialization, and startup support, an expert group project promotion committee composed of hospitals, companies, investors, and research institutions was formed last month and is currently operating. On this day, a second-part event featuring keynote presentations and a discussion forum will be held.
Chonnam National University Hospital will play a pivotal role by providing facility space for building the open healthcare big data platform and surveying and supplying medical data required by companies, enabling collaboration and mutual growth between hospitals and businesses.
Mayor Lee Yong-seop stated, “The AI Healthcare Startup Fostering Platform Construction Project is an ideal model where all institutions located in Gwangju, including autonomous districts, hospitals, and research institutes, combine their capabilities and technologies to create a global-level AI-centered city, Gwangju. Taking this opportunity, we will ensure that promising AI healthcare startups can freely conduct research and commercialize their products in Gwangju.”
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