The Korea International Trade Association (Chairman Koo Ja-kyul) has joined hands with AI One Team to foster an open artificial intelligence ecosystem in Korea.

On the 27th, the Trade Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with AI One Team at the COEX Startup Branch in Samseong-dong to 'expand support for open innovation and proof of concept (PoC) testbeds in the domestic artificial intelligence (AI) sector.'

AI One Team is an industry-academia-research council launched in February of last year with the goal of enhancing the innovative competitiveness of the domestic AI industry. KT, Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, LG Electronics, LG Uplus, Dongwon Group, Woori Bank, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) are participating.

The signing ceremony was attended by representatives of both organizations, including Lee Dong-gi, head of the Innovation Growth Division at the Korea Trade Association, and Choi Jun-gi, head of the AI and Big Data Business Division at KT.

With this MOU as an opportunity, the trade association and AI One Team have decided to pursue the following: △discovering and applying AI-integrated business cases through open innovation with startups, △creating an environment to activate the AI open ecosystem, and △supporting the strengthening of global competitiveness of AI startups with excellent capabilities.

Starting in May, the association will recruit startups that meet the open innovation needs of AI one-team companies and researchers, and provide PoC opportunities for selected collaboration models. In addition, we support PoC funding in collaboration with partner organizations such as the AI Yangjae Hub and support global expansion and investment attraction activities utilizing the association's domestic and international networks.

“Since 2019, the association has been implementing various projects with the goal of expanding the open ecosystem and global scale-up through open innovation and PoC support between large and medium-sized companies, public sectors, and startups at home and abroad,” said Dong-gi Lee, head of the Innovation Growth Division at the Korea International Trade Association. “Based on the experience we have accumulated so far, we will do our best to help AI One Team and excellent startups create a driving force for innovation and growth.”