Martial Arts, Intelligence Association Hold '2022 DexCon Industry Digital Transformation Conference'
Vice Chairman Jeong Manki: "Increase Investment in Semiconductors, AI Hardware, and Industrial Application R&D"
[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] As China has topped the world in patent application statistics in 9 out of 10 advanced industries excluding quantum computers, there are calls for South Korea to make urgent efforts. There is a demand to increase achievements in semiconductor, artificial intelligence (AI) hardware, and industrial application research and development (R&D).
Jung Manki, Vice Chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), made this call in his welcoming remarks at the '2022 DXCon Industrial Digital Transformation (DX) Conference' held on the 15th at the COEX Grand Ballroom in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, jointly hosted by KITA and the Korea Industrial Intelligence Association (KOIIA). The event featured industry data experts including Timothy King, Chair of the ISO Industrial Data Committee, and representatives from leading digital industry companies such as Intel, Oracle, and Software AG as speakers. About 1,000 digital industry stakeholders, export industry representatives, academia, and researchers attended the event.
Vice Chairman Jung said, "China surpassed the United States in the number of international scientific citation index (SCI)-level papers in 2015, and in 2018, China accounted for 21% of SCI papers among all papers, compared to 17% for the U.S., overwhelmingly leading," adding, "In terms of quality, among the top 10% most cited papers, the U.S. has 24.7% and China 22%, showing that China is reaching the U.S. level."
According to patent application statistics released by Japan, China ranked first in 9 out of 10 advanced fields excluding quantum computers. China's semiconductor market, which accounted for less than 20% of global semiconductor sales in 2000, expanded to about 80% last year, and its semiconductor equipment market rose to first place worldwide.
Vice Chairman Jung emphasized, "The global DX-related markets such as AI, facial recognition, and supercomputers are polarized between the U.S. and China," and said, "South Korea must increase R&D investment in semiconductors, AI hardware, and industrial applications where it has competitive advantages, improve investment productivity, and lead international standardization activities." He added, "In line with the trend of the market economy system rapidly shifting from price-based to data-based, the entire industry must accelerate DX."
In the keynote presentations, each company introduced its own strategies to maximize efficiency in the process. Namgi Baek, Vice President of Intel Korea, said in his keynote, "Digital-based industrial innovation in five major areas?computing, connectivity, infrastructure, AI, and sensing?will disruptively change how we experience the world," adding, "Intel will support companies to easily and quickly develop and deploy computer vision AI through the open ecosystem 'Getty' platform."
Se-young Jang, Executive Director of Doosan Enerbility, presented AI use cases in the plant sector, stating, "We promoted DX to solve pressing issues such as plant operating costs and carbon dioxide reduction," and explained, "Equipment errors were optimized by applying big data, digital twins, and the Internet of Things during the transition from monitoring to prediction, static analysis to real-time analysis, and manual work to automation."
Jongheon Lee, Executive Director of KT, emphasized, "Companies need to move away from traditional marketing methods such as exhibitions and newly establish data-driven marketing strategies by paying attention to customers' lifestyles." Jae-shin Kim, Manager at LS Electric, said in his presentation on smart factory construction strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises, "LS Electric was recognized for its level of real-time factory control, quality, and energy integrated monitoring technologies developed in-house and was selected as a 'Global Lighthouse Factory' by the World Economic Forum (WEF) last year."
Related organizations expressed their intention to actively support companies to eliminate difficulties. Taehwan Kim, Full-time Vice Chairman of the Industrial Intelligence Association, mentioned, "We will support the use of AI and industrial data in the field through the Collaboration Support Center to ensure there are no difficulties." Jiyun Son, Director of the Korea Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, presenting on AI-centered home appliances, explained, "If data on component manufacturers' product performance, platform companies' demand forecasts, and customers' main usage functions and operating times are secured, it can save costs and time in new product development."
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