Pohang City Leads Data Industry with Establishment of 'Big Data AI Innovation Center'

Expectations for the 4th Industrial Revolution Core Data Industry Basecamp Role

Pohang City, POSTECH, and 2 Other Institutions Focus on Developing Skilled Professionals and Companies

Pohang City Hall.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Pohang City, Gyeongbuk, is establishing a ‘Big Data AI Innovation Center’ to lead the data industry, a core driving force of the 4th Industrial Revolution era, focusing on nurturing data-specialized companies and talent.

On the 23rd, the city signed a strategic business agreement (MOU) with POSTECH, the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and Pohang Technopark at the city hall’s mid-sized conference room to establish the ‘Big Data AI Innovation Center,’ which will serve as a hub for targeting the big data market.

The four organizations united their intentions to establish the ‘Big Data AI Innovation Center’ to overcome the limitations faced by local communities struggling to foster the data industry due to infrastructure and specialized personnel being concentrated in the metropolitan area. They aim to provide continuous professional talent development, improve technological capabilities through digital transformation of local industries, create high added value, and generate new jobs.

The agreement includes mutual cooperation in ▲ nurturing big data professionals and supporting job linkage projects ▲ fostering big data specialized companies and promoting startup commercialization ▲ providing big data analysis environments and consulting to expand the base of the big data industry in the local community.

The Pohang ‘Big Data AI Innovation Center’ is planned to be built in phases over five years with an investment of 20 billion KRW plus α (government project acquisitions). It will provide open spaces such as data analysis rooms, lecture rooms, incubation spaces, and Open Space, serving as a regional database camp accessible to anyone interested in data, including companies, research institutes, university students, and the general public.

Recently, despite the data industry showing a high annual growth rate in market size, there is a lack of practical support for nurturing local talent and related infrastructure.

Accordingly, the city plans to establish and operate the ‘Big Data AI Innovation Center,’ which creates new value by integrating data and AI technologies. It will link and integrate scattered local data, nurture big data professionals, discover needs between big data demand and supply, foster data-specialized companies, activate the industry, and continue comprehensive mutual cooperation in the data field, including discovering various big data pilot projects.

Additionally, by linking data by sector and utilizing public and private education and corporate support infrastructure, the center will strengthen data capabilities by developing specialized programs and preparing customized talent development plans suitable for the data industry. It will also focus on discovering and matching data demand linked to local companies and attracting leading domestic and international data companies, aiming to intensively foster the data industry as a driving force for creating new jobs.

Mayor Kangdeok Lee of Pohang said, “Through the establishment of the Big Data AI Innovation Center, I hope it will become a data control tower where everything from nurturing big data professionals to fostering companies and further activating the data economy can be achieved in one place.” He added, “We will do our best to secure continuous talent and build a data network so that Pohang can leap forward as a leading city in the digital economy.”