Busan, South Korea’s biggest port city that is also the largest transshipment port in Northeast Asia, should actively seek to adopt new technology, foster innovative ship financing business and increase exchanges with adjacent cities to find a breakthrough at ‘inflection point’, industry leaders and experts urged during the 2017 World Knowledge Forum Busan on Monday.

Nick Brown, Lloyd’s Register’s marine and offshore director, said the global shipping and shipbuilding industries are lagging behind in adopting the recent trend of automation and digitalization, and the industries should expand cooperation with academia to develop technologies to establish smart ports and build autonomous vessels.

Brown suggested the remedies during the 2017 World Knowledge Forum Busan that kicked off on Monday at Busan Paradise Hotel. Experts from home and abroad discussed various ways to enhance value of the Korea’s southern port city during the convention that was held under the theme of ‘Inflection Point and the Future of Busan’.

Busan New Container Terminal (BNCT) CEO John Elliott said Busan has a good chance to successfully develop new technologies thanks to the city’s prompt and bold decision-making process that puts priority on establishing favorable infrastructure for the shipping industry. He touted the city’s recent decision to remove an uninhabited island to make it easy and fast for ships to approach a new port.

Amid the recovery of the shipping industry, Busan should also capture the opportunity in the ship financing business, experts also said. Thibaud Escoffier, head of shipping and offshore finance at Credit Agricole, recommended that Korea fosters the shipping financial leasing business following suit of Chinese peers that have been rapidly filling the void left by European banks and American private equity firms following the protracted slump in the global shipping and shipbuilding industries in the recent years. He said Korea’s large institutional investors should participate in the business and seize opportunities.

Suggesting a new platform dubbed Ocean Industry 4.0, Lee Kang-gi, professor at Korea Maritime and Ocean University, said Busan should establish a new ecosystem that facilitates cooperation by utilizing its highly-educated and tech-savvy talents.

“Busan should create a new smart city model by easing regulations,” said Maekyung Media Group CEO Chang Dae-whan, citing Australia’s Adelaide city that plans to export its telemedicine technology built upon data of various races living there.

Busan City Mayor Seo Byung-soo said that countries and cities failing to adjust to the rapidly-changing technology would be left behind, adding that “Busan is interested in forming an economic zone connecting Russia’s Vladivostok, Japan’s Fukuoka, China’s three northeast provinces and Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar.”

The 2017 World Knowledge Forum Busan was hosted by Maekyung Media Group and organized by Busan Economic Promotion Agency and Korea Maritime Institute. More than 300 experts and renowned figures from home and abroad attended the event that ended on Monday.

By Park Dong-min and Choi Mira

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]