CHANGWON — South Gyeongsang Province Governor Park Wan-su will visit Shanghai and Suzhou, China, from the 17th to the 20th of this month on a four-day trip. During the visit, the provincial delegation will meet with a humanoid robot maker and an online travel platform to pursue cooperation on three fronts: artificial intelligence transformation in manufacturing, attracting tourists, and drawing investment from companies relocating operations back to South Korea.
The delegation's first stop is AGIBOT, a humanoid robot maker in Shanghai's Zhangjiang AI Robot Valley. The company was founded in 2023 by Peng Zhihui, a former member of Huawei's "Genius Youth" program. The province said AGIBOT shipped about 9,700 humanoid robots in the first half of 2026, giving it roughly a 43% share of the global market.
The delegation plans to review the company's robot production system and its approach to building an industrial ecosystem. The province said it will use those findings to help shape plans for a manufacturing AI testing and diffusion hub, one of the policy goals of the ninth popularly elected provincial administration.
On tourism, the province will sign a memorandum of understanding in Suzhou with Tongcheng Travel, a Chinese online travel platform, to promote tourism in South Gyeongsang. The two sides plan to cooperate on developing travel products and itineraries for the province, joint promotion through online platforms and social media, and sharing tourism market information. The aim is to convert the two governments' ongoing talks on jointly designating a Korea-China Year of Tourism into inbound travel demand.
On investment, the province will sign investment agreements with companies including those moving operations back to South Korea. The province said it will step up follow-up support so that corporate investment plans translate into actual investment and local job creation.
The delegation will then visit Hyundai Wia's Jiangsu unit in Zhangjiagang, Suzhou, and the Chinese operations of the DMG Group, which is working to relocate back to South Korea. It will also hold a meeting with officials from South Gyeongsang-based companies operating in China, including Hanwha Ocean, Hanwha Engine and Hyundai Wia, to hear about difficulties they face in running local operations.
"This visit to China is an opportunity to showcase South Gyeongsang's competitiveness in tourism, AI transformation in manufacturing and investment, and to broaden practical opportunities for cooperation," Park said. "Through manufacturing innovation based on artificial intelligence and robots, and through global cooperation, we will secure new growth engines for the provincial economy."
The province said it will flesh out follow-up projects and manage them on a continuing basis so that the cooperation framework established through the visit does not end as a one-off exchange.
