GOYANG — Goyang Mayor Min Kyung-sun was the only head of a basic local government in the country to attend a public hearing held ahead of the government's selection of a site for a global artificial intelligence hub, where he pressed the city's case to host the facility. With Goyang constrained in attracting large-scale manufacturing because of metropolitan-area restrictions, the city is betting on international organizations and advanced knowledge industries as new growth drivers to reshape its future.
Min led a delegation to the public hearing on global AI hub site selection, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT at the Government Complex Sejong Convention Center on the 14th, the city said. The hearing was arranged to explain the site selection criteria, evaluation procedures and draft public solicitation guidelines for the global AI hub — a multilateral AI cooperation base the government plans to establish in South Korea — and to gather opinions from local governments.
Goyang assembled a delegation drawing on the full range of the city's capabilities, including Min, the chief policy secretary, the head of the urban and housing policy office, Hong Young-pyo, chairman of the Goyang citywide citizens' committee, and researchers from the Goyang Research Institute. The delegation sought to grasp the government's criteria from the ministry and related agencies while making clear that the city and civil society are mounting a unified campaign to win the hub.
Min's move reflects Goyang's particular circumstances. For a city where double and triple layers of regulation, including its designation as an overconcentration control zone, make it impossible to attract large manufacturing plants, a U.N.-level global AI hub — staffed by personnel dispatched from international organizations and handling support for developing countries and international standards — is a one-of-a-kind platform that could change the city's future landscape.
"Goyang finds it hard to host manufacturing plants because of various regulations, but it has the most complete conditions to accommodate a U.N.-level international AI organization platform," Min said. "With Kintex, which can host international conferences, office space available for immediate occupancy, and a metropolitan transport network connecting Seoul with Incheon and Gimpo airports, this is a city that is ready for global infrastructure to work right now."
"Like Geneva, Switzerland, where international organizations are clustered, we will make Goyang a 'Digital Geneva' where the world cooperates on AI and handles international norms," he said.
Goyang has waged a wide-ranging campaign since launching a task force headed by the director of the urban and housing policy office in July, followed by a declaration ceremony at the National Assembly in August, the inauguration of a citywide citizens' committee and a drive to collect 100,000 signatures in September, and a global AI hub forum in October.
The government plans to reflect opinions from the hearing in an official public call for candidate sites this month, then finalize the location after evaluations and on-site inspections. Goyang said it will draft a strategic proposal based on its analysis of the hearing guidelines while further solidifying a joint cooperation framework with Gyeonggi Province, in an all-out effort to clear the province's internal screening and make the final cut in the government competition.