The Paradox of the Fastest-Aging City: 27 Billion Won
The Ministry of Science and ICT and Busan City have launched a global AI agetech city project with 27 billion won over five years. It's designed to flip the weakness of being the first metropolitan city to enter a super-aged society into the strength of being an agetech laboratory. Twenty demonstration companies will begin verification at 32 locations including cruises, hotels, and senior towns.
AI Summary
Busan, South Korea's first metropolitan city to become a super-aged society, has launched a 27 billion won AI agetech initiative over five years, funded equally by the national and city governments. Twenty agetech companies will conduct real-world demonstrations at 32 locations including Pan Star Cruise, Signiel, and senior towns, with support from five anchor labs and sponsor Ceragem. The project aims to transform Busan's aging demographics into a competitive advantage by creating a testbed for senior-focused technologies in healthcare, leisure, culture, education, and finance that can expand to national and international markets.
A project has begun to flip the fact that Busan is the fastest-aging major city into an industrial starting point. The Ministry of Science and ICT and Busan City will pursue a global AI agetech city project with approximately 27 billion won over five years. It's split evenly between 13.5 billion won in national funds and 13.5 billion won in city funds. The kickoff report meeting was held on the 14th at the Donggu branch of Busan Haha Center. The fact that the launch ceremony was held at a space for active seniors shows the nature of this project.
Why Busan? The answer lies in demographic statistics. In 2021, Busan became the first among special and metropolitan cities to enter a super-aged society. The population aged 65 and over accounts for 23.9% of the total. The backbone of this project is the paradoxical idea that the city aging fastest is also the largest laboratory for agetech. The target is the active senior industry encompassing health, leisure, culture, education, and finance.
The execution structure is demonstration-centered. Operations will be handled by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency and Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency. Twenty agetech companies will launch 20 new demonstration projects this year. The demonstration venues are notable. They include 32 life-integrated and marine tourism-specialized demand sites such as Pan Star Cruise, Signiel, and Lauer Senior Town, with even overseas partners like medical institutions in Okayama, Japan. The technology axis is supported by five anchor labs. Ceragem participates as an official sponsor.
We will create a virtuous cycle structure where technologies developed and demonstrated in Busan advance to the global market and succeed.
These are the words of Lee Jae-deok, acting president of Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency. For entrepreneurs, the core of this project is access to demand sites. Cruise lines, hotels, senior towns, and overseas medical institutions are open as demonstration venues. These are places that healthcare, robotics, and AI startups would find difficult to penetrate alone. Aging is a future that all of Korea will follow. Busan is the city living that future first. Products verified here will soon become references for larger markets including the entire country and Japan.
This article was automatically translated from the Korean original by AI. For the authoritative version, read it in Korean.
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