Korean Towns Compete for Robot Business

By Kim Yong-seok

Having heavily invested in the bio industry for some time, local autonomous governments are now eager to lure businesses specializing in intelligent robots.

They are rushing to inject billions or tens of billions of won into building clusters for industrial, household and education robots.

Ansan City is betting big on the household service robot, and Daejeon is more committed to robots used for education service.

Pohang plans to heavily invest in robots for industrial applications, with Gwangju and Song-do making similar moves.
Gwangju plans to devote resources to consumer electronics robots, and Song-do aims to build robot sports facilities and develop the robot parts industry.

Competition to lure robot businesses among local governments will likely result in hurting the industry’s overall competitiveness, given that the market is only in a burgeoning stage.

"At this stage, regional differentiation of robot business is seen as a very challenging task," said a professor of robot applications at South Cheolla University. "The country need to concentrate resources on the overall robot industry, waiting to see results in 2 to 3 years."

The Electronic Times Internet