The South Korean government will sharply reduce construction rules and streamline approval procedures for artificial intelligence data centers, one of its three mega projects, to accelerate their rollout. The government plans to localize materials, parts, equipment and software solutions for AI data centers through a new program worth about 200 billion won ($139 million) next year, while drawing up guidelines on community relations to ease local opposition.
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) announced the support measures for the AI data center ecosystem at the second meeting of the Regulatory Rationalization Committee on the 22nd, chaired by President Lee Jae-myung. The meeting was convened to remove regulatory obstacles to the swift implementation of the three mega projects. The government defined the AI data center ecosystem as comprising three groups — builders and operators, suppliers of materials, parts, equipment and solutions, and host regions — and prepared measures for each.
The government will first minimize the permits and approvals required to build an AI data center. Projects currently must clear assessments of their impact on the power grid, building permits, landscape reviews and traffic impact assessments. The ministry will set out subordinate decrees under the special act on AI data centers to minimize steps such as preliminary reviews and requests for supplementary documents during the one-stop approval process.
Facility rules will also be eased. AI data centers are a special type of building with few visitors or permanent staff relative to their floor space. The ministry accepted industry arguments that applying rules written for ordinary buildings — which require more parking, electric vehicle charging stations and other ancillary facilities as a building grows larger — is excessive for data centers. "We will exclude unmanned facilities such as server rooms and cooling and power equipment from the criteria used to calculate building size," MSIT said.
To support companies supplying materials, parts, equipment and solutions, the ministry will launch a new program worth about 200 billion won next year. MSIT plans in particular to develop domestic technology for these components and solutions. It will also build a large AI data center cluster that includes a testbed for verifying the stability of domestic solutions as well as commercial AI data centers.
The government will designate AI data center special zones in the first half of next year and seek mutual benefits with the regions and residents hosting the facilities. "Because AI data centers draw on local resources such as large sites and large volumes of electricity, projects cannot go ahead without the support and acceptance of local residents," an MSIT official said. "We will require a community benefit plan as a mandatory condition for special zone status, which gives operators reductions in levies."
The ministry noted, however, that no obligations, standards or procedures currently govern how residents' views are gathered. It plans to work with local governments to draw up and distribute guidelines on communication between AI data center operators and local residents.
"We plan to issue a public notice of the proposed enforcement decree at the end of this month, setting out specific directions for promoting the AI data center industry and easing regulations," said Ryu Je-myung, second vice minister of science and ICT. "We will faithfully carry out our role in firmly supporting AI data centers, the core foundation for Korea's leap into the top three AI powers."