BUSAN — Calls are growing in Busan to strengthen a control tower that would ensure continuity and expertise in design policy and to develop design firms as a core pillar of regional industrial growth, as the city prepares to serve as the World Design Capital (WDC) in 2028.
Officials from Busan's design, education and industry sectors held a public-private roundtable on innovating the city's design policy and responding to WDC 2028 at Busan City Hall on the 24th, according to the Southeast Region Design Industry Association on the 26th. City officials including Vice Mayor for Future Innovation Oh Seok-geun took part, and participants discussed ways to sustain the development of Busan's design industry.
The roundtable drew figures from the region's design, education and industry sectors, including the Busan Federation of Design Organizations, the Busan Federation of Teachers' Associations, the Southeast Region Design Industry Association and Pukyong National University. Participants agreed that to advance WDC 2028 steadily even after the city government's reorganization, Busan must maintain a dedicated function and expertise capable of spreading design policy across the entire municipal administration.
The regional design community also raised concerns about fairness and transparency issues that had emerged in the operation and projects of the Busan Design Center, warning that some policy decision-making could become concentrated in particular roles or a small group. They argued for institutional improvements to expand the regional design community's participation and input across the entire process — from project planning to commissioning and evaluation — and to strengthen the city's management and oversight.
Participants also proposed nurturing regional design firms as independent industrial players rather than mere outsourcing contractors. They argued for stronger scale-up support at each stage of growth, so that specialized design firms can develop their own services and intellectual property (IP) and enter new markets, and for expanding convergence projects that link design firms with the region's key industries such as manufacturing, marine, information and communications technology (ICT), artificial intelligence (AI) and tourism.
In particular, fostering "marine design" that draws on Busan's character as a coastal city was presented as a key task. The idea is to combine not only marine and port sectors but also tourism, leisure and public design with the design industry, securing both Busan's own specialized industries and the competitiveness of its city brand at the same time.
Stronger cooperation among industry, academia and government was also called for to stem an outflow of talent. Participants said design workers produced by regional universities should be able to settle in Busan rather than move to the Seoul metropolitan area, and that cooperation between local firms and universities should expand while jobs and growth opportunities for young design talent are increased.
A proposal was also raised to link WDC 2028 with the government's policy of relocating public institutions to regional areas, seeking either the relocation of the Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) to Busan or the attraction of its major functions. The strategy is to use the World Design Capital designation as an opportunity to build a regional hub for national design policy in Busan, raising the design industry ecosystem to a higher level.
The city said it would carry out WDC and design-related work without disruption even after the reorganization, and would review with the relevant departments measures such as expanding the participation of local firms, linking small and medium-sized enterprises with specialized design firms, and strengthening the design hub function. It also said it would continue regular and ad hoc communication with the regional design community to actively reflect on-the-ground opinions in the process of advancing WDC 2028.
The Southeast Region Design Industry Association said it plans to continue policy communication with the city and related institutions, while also working to identify convergence projects — centered on the "Busan Penta Alliance" — that link design with information technology, digital healthcare, marine leisure, exports, disaster safety and marine and fisheries ESG.
