Busan Rise Alliance Officially Launches... Advancing as a Global Hub City for 'Busan-style Rise'

16th at 3 PM City Hall, 'Busan Metropolitan City Rise Alliance Launch Ceremony' Held

Mayor Park, "'Busan-type Rise' is a meaningful starting point as a central axis of regional innovation"

Busan Metropolitan City will hold the "Busan Metropolitan City RISE Alliance Launch Ceremony" at 3 p.m. on the 16th in the city hall's main conference room, presided over by Mayor Park Hyung-jun.

RISE stands for Regional Innovation System & Education.

This launch ceremony is organized to allow local universities and related organizations to conduct a final review of the "Busan RISE Basic Plan" ahead of the full implementation of 'RISE' next year, and to sign a business agreement for the "Busan RISE Alliance" to ensure a successful launch of the "Busan-type RISE" through sharing and collaboration among related organizations.

The event will be attended by Mayor Park, Seong Chang-yong, Chair of the City Council's Planning and Finance Committee, Choi Yoon-hong, Acting Superintendent of the City Education Office, presidents of 22 universities in the Busan area, Kim Kwang-soo, Chairman of the Busan Employers Federation, Jung Hyun-min, Vice Chairman of the Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kim Jun-hwi, Director of the Busan Regional Employment and Labor Office, and other leaders from the local business community and public institutions.

Notably, Kim Heon-young, Chair of the Central RISE Committee, and Yoon So-young, Regional Talent Policy Officer from the Ministry of Education, will also attend to listen to various voices from the local field and engage in communication.

The Busan RISE Basic Plan envisions "Busan-type RISE that triggers a new wave of innovation for the 2030 global hub city," consisting of four major projects and 12 core tasks based on ▲ Human Wave for securing future talent ▲ Industrial Wave for industrial advancement ▲ Social Wave for spreading regional value ▲ University Wave for university transformation.

In particular, the "Busan-type RISE" has three distinctive features to establish a sustainable regional industry-academia innovation ecosystem where the region and universities grow together.

First, based on the capabilities and roles of universities, it categorizes them into research-oriented, education-oriented, and vocational lifelong education-oriented types according to the manpower and technology levels required by each industry. Local universities then select and focus on core tasks in talent development, research and development, technology commercialization, startup and business support according to their type.

Second, in task planning, a co-design approach is adopted to guarantee universities autonomy to maximize their capabilities. Instead of a top-down approach where the city plans detailed tasks and universities receive orders, a bottom-up approach is used where universities autonomously plan detailed tasks based on the city's policy directions and core models presented in the basic plan, strengthening project execution and maximizing tangible outcomes.

Third, as a core model of project implementation, through the "Open UIC (University-Industry Collaboration)," it moves away from closed one-directional cooperation between individual universities and companies to expand the scope to inter-university and inter-cluster corporate cooperation. Regional innovation actors actively collaborate to create a virtuous cycle ecosystem of "Busan-type RISE" linking talent development, employment and entrepreneurship, and regional settlement.

Establishing the Representative Model of Busan-type RISE: Creating an Interactive and Open Collaborative Ecosystem through Open UIC.

Additionally, the plan announces policy directions such as strengthening university specialization linked to Busan's industrial policies, linking outcomes with existing five major government financial support projects, and creating synergy through cross-ministerial collaborative projects. It also proposes measures for systematic performance management through regional autonomous indicators linked to core performance indicators suggested by the government, such as settlement employment rates and strengthened regional industry-academia-research collaboration, to establish 'RISE' as a pillar of sustainable growth for the region and universities.

Following this, an "Alliance Agreement Ceremony" will be held with the participation of 31 organizations including local governments, universities, business circles, and public institutions to officially promote the "Busan-type RISE."

The city has already formed the "Busan Public RISE Alliance," a working-level consultative body involving eight city-funded institutions centered on the Busan RISE Center on the 4th, and through today's event, plans to expand this to local universities, business circles, and government agencies, aiming for the entire local community to actively participate in and grow together with "RISE."

The agreement involves 31 organizations from government, industry, academia, and research, including the city, city council, city education office, 22 universities in Busan, Busan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Busan Employers Federation, Busan Regional Employment and Labor Office, Busan Regional Small and Medium Venture Business Administration, and Korea South-East Power Co., Ltd.

The city has devoted full efforts to preparing for the successful establishment of "RISE" in the region starting in 2025, including organizing the implementation system and establishing the basic plan.

After the government announced last year the RISE promotion plan delegating administrative and financial authority over local universities to local governments, the city promptly applied for and was selected as a pilot area.

Following the pilot area selection, the city established a dedicated RISE organization and the Busan RISE Center as the dedicated institution, reorganized the implementation system, and formed the RISE Promotion Council with local universities to discuss the promotion direction and strategic tasks of "Busan-type RISE" multiple times, resulting in the preparation of this basic plan.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun stated, "Through 'Busan-type RISE,' universities, industries, and public institutions must cooperate to create a sustainable industry-academia cooperation growth model. The 'Busan RISE Alliance' is a meaningful starting point as the central axis of regional innovation." He added, "I hope all institutions join forces to generate innovation momentum so that Busan becomes a representative model of regional innovation in Korea and leaps forward as a 'Global Hub City Busan.' Universities and the region will work together to ensure tangible results are felt in companies and industries, and that young people can work and settle in the region."

Busan City Hall.