The 2019 Industrial Transformation Conference, hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) hosted at COEX in Seoul on Dec. 13. (Photos: MOTIE)

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) hosted the 2019 Industrial Transformation Conference at COEX in Seoul on Dec. 13. The conference, organized by Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) and the Office of Strategic R&D Planning at the MOTIE, was part of the Korea Tech Show 2019 that took place at COEX from Dec. 13 to 14.

The conference was held under the theme “Industrial Transformation through Connectivity and Cooperation among Technologies, Industries and Companies.” It was divided into three sub-themes: manufacturing renaissance, future energy and new convergence industry.

Paik Man-ki, head of the Office of Strategic R&D Planning, delivered a keynote speech at the event.
Among speakers in a session on manufacturing renaissance were Prof. Jang Seok-kwon of Hanyang University, who spoke about the Korean manufacturing industry’s influence in the wake of localization and response strategies and Kim Yong-suk, chief of the Display Innovative Process Platform Business Team, who touched on innovative platform on flexible intelligent varied display.

In a session on the new convergence industry, Lee Jae-ho of Kakao Digital Economic Research Institute, spoke about mobility innovation and the future of the automobile industry, President Choi Yoon-sup of Digital Health-Care Partners gave a lecture on future care using digital technologies, and President Park Hun-jae of the Software Policy Research Institute discoursed on AI and futuristic manpower development.

Among the speakers in a session on future energy were Vice President Oh Jae-hyuk of Hyundai Motor, who spoke on new energy businesses of automakers leading innovative transformation of the energy industry for the development of hydrogen fuel cell cars, Vice President Lee Kun-bok of Microsoft Korea, who lectured on innovative convergence models of industry and energy using diverse energy resources to raise energy efficiency of industrial complexes in Korea and abroad, and Director Steve Hall of PSE, who spoke about Korean and foreign cases and future society on smart industrial complex.

Advanced technology powerhouses are working on mid- and long-term steps to get an upper hand on technologies related to the 4th Industrial Revolution, such as AI, big data and blockchain, said an official with the Office of Strategic R&D Planning.

In Korea, the government is scrambling to promote innovative growth by establishing strategies on manufacturing renaissance, and the nation now has to explore and employ models on innovative added values based on industrial “smartfying” of Korean industrial sites and data, he added.

A view of the 2019 Industrial Transformation Conference, which was held under the theme “Industrial Transformation through Connectivity and Cooperation among Technologies, Industries and Companies.”