Baekyeonghun Minister, "AI Data Center Must Secure Price Competitiveness... Promoting Simplification of Permits"

[Financial News] To realize the leap to 'AI (Artificial Intelligence) Top 3 Nations', the Ministry of Science and ICT emphasized securing price competitiveness for AI data. To this end, they plan to simplify the permits for AI data centers and accelerate the acquisition timing of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). Additionally, regarding the national AI computing center construction project, which has been canceled twice, they plan to promote a plan that grants corporate autonomy.
Baekyeonghun, Minister of Science and ICT, visited the Naver Sejong AI Data Center on the 24th as his first AI-related field visit, inspected the facility, and held a field meeting with major companies, associations, and academia representatives.
At this meeting, Minister Baek emphasized, "The sovereign AI for building Korea's AI highway is about equipping ourselves with the technical capabilities to provide global services with our technology," and "There are fields such as defense or security that must be made with our technology, so building domestic AI data centers is very important and meaningful." He pointed out that securing price competitiveness is as important as spreading AI technology.
He said, "Even if we have the technology, if we cannot secure price competitiveness, it is not easy to compete with cheap foreign technologies," and "This is the most concerning part."
To fundamentally secure price competitiveness, the government plans to accelerate the GPU project. Minister Baek stated, "Beyond the pledge to 'secure 50,000 GPUs within 5 years', it is important to prepare the groundwork to secure them as quickly as possible within a year," and "Rather than securing 10,000 first and then gradually, we will prepare a stage to secure them quickly within 2-3 years." Regarding the government's '100 trillion won AI investment' pledge, they plan to reflect it in policy while making it more realistic.
Regarding the national AI computing business, he said, "We are considering various ways to grant autonomy to companies, along with various deregulations, and are also considering ways to utilize existing infrastructure on a case-by-case basis," and "Once the plan is organized, we will proceed with deliberation and resolution from the National AI Committee."
Regarding the demand for AI deregulation, he said, "The permit process for building data centers is complicated and there are overlapping regulations, so we will consider how to simplify them," and "We will create an ecosystem to dispel prejudices and increase understanding, such as resident opposition to data centers."
Regarding infrastructure construction, such as securing essential power and land for data centers, they plan to positively review the plan where the government provides land and companies lease it long-term, and thoroughly check tax benefits related to data centers.
The field meeting was attended by AI industry companies such as Naver Cloud CEO Kim Yuwon, Samsung SDS President Lee Junhee, SK Telecom Vice President Ha Minyong, Kakao Vice President Kim Sewoong, NHN Cloud CEO Kim Donghoon, KT Cloud CEO Choi Jiwoong, LG Uplus Innovation Group Leader Park Seongyul, as well as AI experts from various fields such as Korea Data Center Association (KDCC) Chairman Kang Joonghyup, Korea Information and Communication Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) Director Park Yungyu, Seoul National University Professor Lee Kyungmoo, and KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) Professor Ryu Seokyoung. The attendees proposed improving regulations related to data centers, expanding AI infrastructure, creating synergy effects between AI-related companies, and establishing networks between companies and schools to strengthen national AI competitiveness.
jiany@fnnews.com Yeon Jian Reporter