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CES 2025 showing proves Busan’s technological prowess

 

Team Busan made quite a splash at CES 2025, the annual technology trade show held in Las Vegas last month. The contingent, comprising public institutions and 23 local companies, successfully displayed the city’s potential as a global hub for advanced technology and cutting-edge innovation.

Busan City Hall worked with the Consumer Technology Association, the technology trade organization that organizes CES, to set up the Busan Pavilion. Within the pavilion, public organizations, such as the Busan Economic Promotion Agency, Busan Techno Park and the Busan Center for Creative Economy & Innovation, and local companies set up 25 exhibition booths to promote Busan’s technological prowess in front of more than 141,000 attendees.

The promotion was a groundbreaking success and laid the foundation for several companies to find global partners and enter international markets.

Busan’s 23 participating companies recorded 366 export consultations worth approximately $28 million (41 billion won). Export consultations help businesses navigate entry into international markets. The $28 million valuation means global audiences are significantly interested in Busan companies’ products and services.

The interest is already bearing fruit, as Team Busan achieved $12 million (17.6 billion won) in contract promotion, or contracts expected to be executed in a year.

The successful businesses include: Lab O2One, whose shipping software, Vessellink, helps shipping companies manage their vessels; Bloomsbury Lab, who specialize in cinema display and projection; and Schaffen Gott, who specialize in safety technology and disaster prevention and monitoring.

Team Busan also had six CES 2025 Innovation Award winners, including: New Energy’s ion heating system; ZIM CO.LTD for the Mogabi, a portable and foldable education guitar; the transparent antenna from CIT; Mapsea for its maritime big data solution platform; PTBRO for Acheless, a wearable pain-relief device; and ROBOne’s ROBin AI-waste sorting system.

Team Busan’s success bodes well for the city’s support for and fostering of small and medium-sized enterprises and startups. Busan consulted participating companies on global strategy and in producing English-language promotional materials.

Beyond showcasing technology, Busan City secured strategic partnerships with major U.S. tech firms to foster new industries and cultivate talent.

City officials signed a business agreement with Microsoft to establish the Microsoft Data Center Academy. The partnership will include cloud computing and IT education programs, mentorship programs and internships for Busan's youth. The move comes after Busan and the U.S. city of Seattle agreed to closer economic and strategic cooperation during an April 2024 summit between government and business leaders.

Furthermore, IonQ, a leader in quantum computing and networking industries based in Maryland, agreed to provide quantum computing cloud services, support the planning and execution of joint quantum initiatives and contribute to the workforce and economic development of Korea. In turn, the Busan Metropolitan Government will help create an environment conducive to the growth of the quantum technology sector.

<Today's Vocabulary - 오늘의 단어>

splash: 맹활약 annual: 연간의 contingent: 대표단 cutting-edge: 최첨단의 innovation: 혁신 groundbreaking: 획기적인 approximately: 대략 valuation: 가치 cultivate: 구축하다 strategic: 전략적인 cooperation: 협력 quantum: 양자 conducive: ~에 도움이 되는

Editor: Song Soomi

Copy Editors: Ryu Hyoseung, Anton J. Mapoy