Pohang City opened the Pohang Big data AI Innovation Center on Oct. 13 at the Pohang Institute of Artificial Intelligence (PIAI), and the center will lead the development of the data industry in Pohang. More than 250 people attended the opening ceremony, including the Deputy Mayor of Pohang, Lee Jang-sik, POSTECH President Moo Hwan Kim, and other heads of major institutions in the region.
 Although the data industry has recently shown rapid growth, there has been a lack of practical support for the industry, difficulty in fostering data science experts in the region, and even related infrastructure has not been well established. In response, Pohang City joined hands with POSTECH, PIAI, and Pohang Technopark to establish the center at PIAI and began full-fledged operations. 
 The city, led by the center, plans to create an innovative industrial system for the data industry in cooperation with the institutions above. The center was established to be the first Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the country and will grow into a key base that creates new value by combining data and AI technologies. The center is expected to serve as a big data control tower in the region, including support for data strategy establishment, support for data manpower training and job linkage, fostering big data companies, and providing data analysis and consulting. In particular, the center is expected to actively cultivate data experts in the region by using lecture rooms and analysis rooms in the center and present data policies for future industry development directions. 
 "The Pohang Big data AI Innovation Center aims to build a big data and AI innovation hub, train professionals, and support businesses and startups. With the advent of an era in which data is the new oil, the center will create an innovative system to strengthen the data capability of the region and foster the data industry," explained Young-Joo Suh, head of the center.
 The center will be expanded step by step by investing more than 20 billion KRW over the next five years as it carries out national projects. As the center was established as a PPP, open spaces such as data analysis rooms, lecture rooms, and childcare spaces are also in operation so that university students and ordinary citizens can easily access them. In addition, the center plans to continue a comprehensive cooperative relationship in the data field, such as linking and integrating data scattered in the region, fostering data companies, and discovering needs between significant data supply and demand.
 "By opening Pohang Big data AI Innovation Center, we will foster big data professionals, support job links, and cultivate big data companies to focus on growing the data industry as part of Pohang's new growth industry which will lead the 4th industrial revolution," said Lee Jang-sik, Deputy Mayor of the city. Pohang City and PIAI are looking forward to the rapid growth of the data industry through the center.