![\"Gyeongsangnam-do](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/news-p.v1.20260702.0c1169caed1e48209a08b7fa9b6053fb_P1.jpg\"\/ "\\"Governor")
Gyeongsangnam-do Governor Park Wan-su (left) and LG Electronics Vice President Baek Seung-tae tour the artificial intelligence (AI)-based autonomous manufacturing system and smart production processes during a visit to LG Electronics’ Smart Park in Changwon on the 2nd. Photo courtesy of Gyeongsangnam-do<\/p>\n
Amid growing claims of a “Gyeongnam neglect” \u2014 that South Gyeongsang Province was effectively excluded from the government’s “Korea Great Leap Forward Three Mega-Projects” \u2014 Governor Park Wan-su has chosen “Physical AI” as the first industrial site visit of his ninth popularly elected term. The move is seen as signaling his intent to confront the gap in the government’s plan head-on by developing Gyeongnam, home to the nation’s largest manufacturing base, into a national hub for Physical AI.<\/p>\n
Park visited LG Electronics’ Smart Park in Changwon on Tuesday, touring artificial intelligence (AI)-based autonomous manufacturing systems and smart production processes. It was his first industrial site visit since the government announced Physical AI on Nov. 29 as one of its “Three Mega-Projects.” The visit came immediately after he pledged in his inaugural remarks the previous day to nurture Physical AI and small modular reactors (SMRs) as core industries, reflecting Gyeongnam’s determination to secure leadership in Physical AI.<\/p>\n
Earlier, immediately after the government’s announcement, the provincial government publicly expressed regret, saying there was “insufficient strategic consideration for Gyeongnam, the backbone of Korea’s economic security industries.” Local political and business circles have also called for designating Gyeongnam as a “national Physical AI hub,” arguing that the province \u2014 with its unrivaled manufacturing infrastructure spanning Changwon’s machinery, robotics and nuclear power, Geoje’s shipbuilding and marine industry, and Sacheon and Jinju’s aerospace \u2014 should be the center of Physical AI.<\/p>\n
LG Electronics’ Changwon Smart Park was selected as a “Global Lighthouse Factory” by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2022, the first in Korea’s home appliance industry. It features a world-class smart manufacturing system that produces one refrigerator every 12 seconds, integrating AI-based quality inspection, process data analysis, and automated guided vehicles (AGVs) across its entire production process.<\/p>\n
After touring the integrated production building and research and development (R&D) center, Park held a meeting with company officials to hear plans for expanding manufacturing AI transformation (AX) and on-site suggestions. LG Electronics operates a “shared-growth smart factory support program” that dispatches production technology experts to partner companies to help automate the entire process of machining, assembly and logistics. To date, about 250 partner companies have received support.<\/p>\n
“LG Electronics’ home appliance technology, which is taking on the new innovations of AI and robotics, will also be a powerful competitive weapon in the future home robot market,” Park said. “We will spare no provincial-level support so that numerous parts and finished products \u2014 including joints, the core components of robots \u2014 are produced in Gyeongnam, further invigorating the regional industrial ecosystem.”<\/p>\n
The provincial government has allocated 1.1909 trillion won this year for manufacturing AI transformation, the largest amount ever. Linked to the government’s mega-projects, it will fully advance a “Four Physical AI Strategies, 37 Core Projects” plan that will invest 4.9339 trillion won through 2030. It plans to develop the strategy in phases: Stage 1, spreading smart factory adoption; Stage 2, building AI factories based on intelligent flexible production; and Stage 3, a “full-cycle Physical AI completion strategy” fusing manufacturing sites with AI.<\/p>\n
“This is now an era in which Physical AI-based manufacturing innovation determines industrial competitiveness,” Park stressed. “Linked to the government’s mega-projects, we will develop Gyeongnam into the center of Korea’s Physical AI industry.”<\/p>\n
![\"Gyeongsangnam-do](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/news-p.v1.20260702.bb30aeae76a24504a5fba3f7bc509741_P1.jpg\"\/ "\\"Governor")
Gyeongsangnam-do Governor Park Wan-su visits LG Electronics’ Smart Park in Changwon on the 2nd, touring the artificial intelligence (AI)-based autonomous manufacturing system and smart production processes and discussing manufacturing AI transformation (AX) and industry development measures with company officials. Photo courtesy of Gyeongsangnam-do<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gyeongsangnam-do Governor Park Wan-su (left) and LG Electronics Vice President Baek Seung-tae tour the artificial intelligence (AI)-based autonomous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[621],"tags":[8295,8959,37035,315,357,39417,18671,39416,1223,11306],"class_list":["post-72631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lg-electronics","tag-changwon","tag-gyeongnam","tag-korea-mega-projects","tag-lg","tag-lg-electronics","tag-lg-electronics-smart-park","tag-manufacturing-ai-transformation","tag-park-wan-su","tag-physical-ai","tag-smart-factory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}