Busan Leads Administrative Innovation... Creating the Era of AI and Data-Driven Smart Administration

Mayor Park Hyungjoon of Busan and Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yoowon Sign Agreement
From Identifying Cooperative Projects to Commercialization and Expanding Advanced Services Across Policy Areas

Busan City has embarked on administrative innovation based on artificial intelligence (AI) and data.

Busan City (Mayor Park Hyungjoon) announced on the 8th that it had signed an MOU with Naver Cloud Corp. for the "Implementation of Busan-style Intelligent Administration."

At the signing ceremony held at City Hall at 11 a.m. that day, Mayor Park Hyungjoon and Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yoowon personally signed the agreement.

This agreement was made to establish a public-private cooperation foundation for promoting AI-driven administrative innovation in the public sector in the AI era. Both sides plan to first derive successful cases in implementing sustainable AI and data-based intelligent administration.

Busan Mayor Park Hyungjun (sixth from the left) is signing a business agreement with Naver Cloud officials to implement intelligent administration.

Busan City will continue to identify and commercialize specific cooperation projects to promote AI administrative innovation in the public sector. The goal is to gradually expand advanced AI services across various policy areas.

Busan City will be responsible for policy and administrative support, as well as administrative innovation projects, while Naver Cloud will provide technical support, solution development, and cooperation with local companies.

Previously, in September last year, following the announcement of the national AI strategy policy direction by the Ministry of Science and ICT, Busan City established its own AI administrative innovation promotion plan in October. Starting this year, the city plans to actively utilize AI technology in administration to enhance administrative efficiency and provide reliable public services to citizens.

With the spread of AI in the public sector, the city plans to introduce generative AI services for internal administrative tasks this year to boost civil servants' work productivity. Additionally, it will establish an administrative system that can respond swiftly to citizens' policy demands.

Recognizing the difficulty of comprehensively analyzing vast administrative data due to limited personnel and time, Busan City plans to integrate and connect high-quality internal and external data to support the analysis, diagnosis, and prediction processes of the policy environment.

The city intends to design and build a system where all data is connected to create value through data convergence in the AI era.

For repetitive tasks and consultation requests, which account for a significant workload, the city will support staff to focus more on core tasks by simplifying and automating business processes.

To enhance the effectiveness of AI service utilization, systematic training will also be provided to strengthen the AI capabilities of city officials. Customized training curricula will be developed to enable officials to effectively use AI services in their work, with step-by-step training from beginner to intermediate levels, so that they can utilize these services starting January next year.

A voluntary AI study group (MEET AI) of around 20 participants will be formed to provide full support for learning and foster AI innovation leaders within the public sector. These leaders will discover citizen-centric AI projects, introduce automation programs (RPA) for repetitive tasks, and hold AI idea contests for employees.

The city also plans to raise employee interest by operating an internal AI administrative innovation bulletin board to share the latest AI technology trends and best practices.

In addition, in March, Busan City became the first metropolitan city to establish "Ethical Guidelines for Civil Servants' Use of Generative AI," presenting clear standards for effective and ethical use of AI by public officials based on four core values: fairness, reliability, responsibility, and security.

Busan City has also announced the "Busan AI Comprehensive Strategy," envisioning itself as a future global AI hub city.

Mayor Park Hyungjoon said, "We will swiftly introduce Busan-style AI services in line with the government-wide policy to become one of the world's top three AI powerhouses and to realize the comprehensive strategy announced last month."

Mayor Park added, "This business agreement will be a turning point where local governments and companies go beyond simple cooperation to create the future of intelligent administration together. We will work to lead AI innovation through public-private cooperation, establish an AI ecosystem linked with local industries and universities, and ensure that citizens can feel its impact in their daily lives."