PM Han Seong-sook Pledges Full Support for Saemangeum High-Tech Hub

SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) -- Prime Minister Han Seong-sook said Friday that the government will do whatever it can to turn the Saemangeum reclaimed land in southwestern South Korea into a hub for artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, hydrogen and other high-tech industries.

Han made the remark during a meeting on the project at the Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency in Jeonju, some 190 kilometers south of Seoul, saying Hyundai Motor Group's 9 trillion-won (US$6.1 billion) investment plan is the beginning of Saemangeum's ever-developing future.

Hyundai's plan, announced in February, calls for utilizing 1.12 million square meters of land in the Saemangeum area to build an AI data center, a robotics manufacturing and components cluster, a water electrolysis plant and solar power facilities, among others.

The investment is expected to create around 70,000 jobs and generate an estimated 16 trillion won in economic impact.

"The 9 trillion-won investment that Hyundai Motor Group announced is the beginning of a development that Saemangeum should move toward," Han said. "As the president said a while ago, a very big picture can be drawn about the development's size, scale and how far it will grow, depending on how much effort the central and local governments will make."

The government will do everything it can to help draw additional investment and shape Saemangeum's future, she said.