KOSPO and NIPA Sign Business Agreement to Support Growth of AICT Startups

As competition in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry translates into national competitiveness, movements for public and private sectors to cooperate in supporting startup growth are also expanding. In particular, establishing a public-private partnership framework that simultaneously promotes AI infrastructure and regulatory improvements, as well as support for global expansion, is emerging as a key task for revitalizing the AI ecosystem.

The Korea Startup Forum (KOSPO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Information & Communication Technology Promotion Agency (NIPA) to promote the innovative growth and ecosystem activation of AICT (Artificial Intelligence + Information & Communication Technology) startups.

The two organizations held a signing ceremony at Maru360 in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 23rd and agreed to establish a cooperation system to effectively connect the government's AICT fostering policy with the on-site demands of private startups.

Officials including Kim Jae-won, Chairman of the Korea Startup Forum, Choi Ji-young, Representative of the Korea Startup Forum, and Park Un-gyu, President of the Korea Information and Communication Industry Promotion Agency, attended the signing ceremony.

The Korea Startup Forum is the largest startup organization in Korea, with approximately 2,900 startups and innovation ecosystem partners participating. The Korea Information and Communication Technology Promotion Agency (KIPA) is an ICT industry promotion agency under the Ministry of Science and ICT that fosters the AICT industry, provides infrastructure support, and carries out policy projects.

Through this agreement, the two organizations will pursue cooperation in four areas: infrastructure cooperation to support public resources based on actual demand, regulatory innovation to identify and improve regulatory difficulties on the ground, policy cooperation reflecting private sector opinions, and support for global expansion through linkage with overseas networks.

Through this agreement, KOSPO plans to reflect the opinions of the startup field in policies and support programs, and strengthen its role in connecting the public and private sectors so that startups in the AICT field can secure practical growth opportunities.

Kim Jae-won, Chairman of the Korea Startup Forum, said, “This agreement is a starting point for connecting the innovation needs of startups with the public sector’s support capabilities,” adding, “We will expand public-private cooperation to create tangible results for startups in the areas of infrastructure, regulatory innovation, policy, and global expansion.”

Park Un-gyu, President of the Korea Information & Communication Technology Promotion Agency (KIPA), said, “We will create tangible results that enhance the global competitiveness of AICT startups by connecting public policy capabilities with on-site demands from the private sector.”