National Policy Planning Committee's "Strategy for Genuine Growth of the Republic of Korea" Report
Plan to Build a Nationwide "AI Expressway" Connecting the Entire Country
Seoul Metropolitan Area for Culture and Content, Chungcheong for Science
Southern Region for Advanced Manufacturing, Southwest for Energy, and More
The "AI Expressway," one of the flagship artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure projects envisioned by the new administration, is expected to take shape by establishing a "mega AI cluster" at the geographic center of South Korea and then connecting "industry-specific AI centers" across the country.
The National Policy Planning Committee, which serves as the transition team for the Lee Jaemyung administration, stated in its "Strategy for Genuine Growth of the Republic of Korea" report released on June 17 that "investment in AI is essential not only to strengthen AI competitiveness but also to achieve a potential growth rate of 3% and become one of the world's top five economic powers." The committee defined AI data centers as part of the nation's social overhead capital (SOC) and announced plans to build AI data centers equipped with state-of-the-art graphics processing units (GPUs).
The committee emphasized that building an "AI Expressway" connecting the entire country is necessary to maximize the efficiency of the planned 100 trillion won investment in AI. To this end, the first step will be to establish a "mega AI cluster" in the central region of the country. According to the report, "This site will house data centers and AI computing centers capable of developing large language models (LLMs) and industry-specific foundational models." The report also stated, "We will create AI bootcamps to nurture world-class talent and establish venture startup centers."
The plan also includes connecting this cluster to industry-specific AI centers nationwide. For example, a culture and content AI center will be established in the Seoul metropolitan area, a science AI center in Daejeon and Sejong, an advanced manufacturing AI center in the southern manufacturing hub, and an energy AI center in the southwest region.
The report noted, "In Korea, energy production facilities and the manufacturing base are concentrated in the southern region, administrative and science and technology complexes are located in the central region, and the headquarters, workforce, and financial institutions of major companies are clustered in the metropolitan area." The committee stressed the need to "build AI infrastructure connected across the entire country to create an AI ecosystem in which AI research and industrial applications are organically integrated."
The report added, "The specific locations and scale of AI infrastructure, as well as the characteristics of regional AI hubs, will be determined based on the national AI strategy and the conditions of each region."
The relationship between AI and data was compared to that of "cars and oil," and the report included goals to open public data and eliminate regulations on data access to secure high-quality data. The committee stated, "The government will take the lead in creating high-quality AI training data clusters and establishing open platforms." The report also added, "We will revise regulations to enable the combination and utilization of data even in sectors that handle sensitive personal information, such as healthcare and finance."
To facilitate active transactions of AI training data, the government also plans to consider measures such as data value assessment and quality certification, the development of standard contracts, and the introduction of anonymization for training data.
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