Busan City Launches Smart Aquaculture Cluster Development Project

Busan City and GS Construction Sign Memorandum of Understanding for Investment... Participation in Construction and Business Investment
Gradual Expansion Including Large-Scale Aquaculture Complex Development, Aiming to Secure Global Market

Perspective view of the Pukyong National University Fisheries Science Research Institute in Dongbaek-ri, Ilgwang-myeon, Gijang-gun, Busan, the planned site for the Smart Form Cluster Development Project.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] The ‘Smart Aquaculture Cluster’ project planned by Busan City is set to be actively promoted.

Busan City announced on the 11th that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with GS Construction on the 10th for the ‘successful establishment of the Smart Aquaculture Cluster and fostering related industries.’

The Smart Aquaculture Cluster is a project to create a smart aquaculture testbed and a supporting site based on the Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Big Data, realizing automation and intelligence. Busan City was selected for the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries’ public project in January 2019, and after completing the detailed design, construction of the foundation will begin by the end of the year.

Busan City plans to invest a total of 40 billion KRW, including 22 billion KRW in national funds, to establish the Smart Aquaculture Cluster in the first phase, and operate programs such as profitability, data collection, research and development, and workforce training through the testbed.

In the second phase, the project will expand sequentially by supporting the settlement of private companies in the supporting site, and the final goal by 2025 is to create a large-scale advanced fisheries complex industrial park integrating production, distribution, processing, export, and tourism in the third phase.

Heo Yoon-hong, President of GS Construction, said, “By participating in this Smart Aquaculture Cluster project, GS Construction will strategically foster its new growth business and actively consider investments in large-scale aquaculture farm construction and related business fields in the future to help Busan become the center of the domestic smart aquaculture industry.”

Byun Sung-wan, Acting Mayor of Busan, said, “The smartification competition in the aquaculture sector is a global trend linked to the development of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies. The role of the Smart Aquaculture Cluster will be very important in responding to economic and social structural changes in the post-COVID-19 era and transforming the industry’s constitution through ICT convergence and eco-friendliness. We will spare no administrative support to ensure GS Construction’s investment succeeds.”