BUSAN — A large-scale regulatory sandbox for new marine leisure industries spanning South Korea's east coast is now in operation.
The Busan Metropolitan Government said on the 1st that the cross-regional regulatory free zone for new marine leisure, planned jointly with North Gyeongsang Province, received final designation after review by the Regulatory Free Zone Committee of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. The designation runs from the 1st of this month through Dec. 31, 2030.
The zone is part of a state policy initiative for cross-regional regulatory free zones, which the government introduced to build value chains for emerging industries by combining industrial bases and testing environments across regions, rather than limiting demonstrations to a single area or individual technology. The designated area covers a total of 682.23 square kilometers of waters, including Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province and the stretch from Cheongsapo to the New Port in Busan.
The designation significantly eases current marine leisure rules, which until now assumed that vessels could be operated only by a person on board. An exemption applies to the requirement under the Water Leisure Safety Act that a license holder personally operate the craft, allowing autonomous navigation systems that meet certain safety standards to be recognized as the operator. That opens the way for verifying core technologies in actual waters, including autonomous navigation, collision avoidance and automatic deceleration and stopping.
In addition, unmanned surface rescue robots will be recognized as entities capable of performing lifesaving operations, and crewing requirements under the Ship Personnel Act will be temporarily eased for unmanned surface vessels and underwater drones. A total of four demonstration exemptions under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Korea Coast Guard will apply.
The two local governments plan to maximize synergy through a division of labor and cooperation. Busan will handle field verification and commercialization of technologies such as AI-based maritime object recognition, integrated safety control for coastal areas and ports, and underwater drone monitoring, drawing on its shipbuilding and marine ICT base and real marine environments including ports, marinas and beaches. North Gyeongsang will take charge of technology development, equipment manufacturing and basic performance verification, using its robotics and marine mobility research institutes and open-sea environment.
According to the Korea Maritime Institute (KMI), consumer spending in Busan's marine tourism market reached 6.3796 trillion won as of 2024, the largest in the country. With about 30,000 businesses and 160,000 workers clustered in the sector, technologies tested in the zone are expected to be applied quickly in the field.
The city said it will jointly use demonstration infrastructure and data with North Gyeongsang Province and, based on the results, actively support improvements to related laws and safety standards as well as the commercialization efforts of participating companies.
"This designation is a starting point for opening new markets in the marine leisure industry of the future by combining Busan's maritime and port infrastructure with North Gyeongsang's research and development capabilities," Mayor Jun Jae-soo said. "We will fuse autonomous navigation, AI and robotics technologies with local industries to develop Busan into a global leader in marine mobility."
