Analysis Region: 22 cities and counties in Gyeongsangbuk-do
Core Regions: The high-tech industrial axis of Gumi, Pohang, Gyeongsan, and Gyeongju, and population-declining regions including Andong, Yeongju, Sangju, Mungyeong, Uiseong, Cheongsong, Yeongyang, Yeongdeok, Cheongdo, Goryeong, Seongju, Bonghwa, Uljin, and Ulleung
Agenda: Are high-tech, AX, computing, and R&D assets concentrated around Gumi and Pohang connecting with existing industries in the 22 cities and counties of Gyeongbuk to reduce disparities in productivity, employment, population, and fiscal balance?
Golden Time Type: Opportunity + Structural Divergence Risk
Reference Date: August 28, 2026
Version: Regional AX Golden Time Intelligence v3.2
The AX gap in Gyeongbuk should be assessed not as a future risk, but as the possibility of a new productivity gap being added on top of existing disparities in industry, population, finance, and accessibility . By the end of 2025, the population of Gyeongbuk is projected to be approximately 2,506,000, comprising 22 cities and counties. Of these, 15 cities and counties are designated by the government as areas of population decline , while Gyeongju and Gimcheon are classified as areas of concern regarding population decline. In other words, 17 out of the 22 cities and counties fall under the categories of population decline or areas of concern. ( Gyeongbuk Provincial Government )
Industry moves in the opposite direction. While the five major advanced industry mega-tech alliance cities proposed by North Gyeongsang Province for 2026 connect AI/semiconductors, future mobility, bio, energy, and defense across multiple cities and counties, the actual core AX infrastructure is being built most rapidly in Gumi and Pohang first. Of the three nationwide AX demonstration industrial complexes, two—Gumi and Pohang—were selected from North Gyeongsang Province, and a total of 48.1 billion won in manufacturing AX infrastructure will be invested in these two regions from 2026 to 2029. ( North Gyeongsang Provincial Government )
The scale of digital investment across Gyeongbuk as a whole is also substantial. By 2026, the province and 22 cities and counties are pursuing approximately 720 informatization projects with a total budget of about 142.6 billion won . At the same time, a joint response system between the province and cities/counties is being established based on the 2026–2030 Basic Plan for Intelligent Informatization. While a regional foundation for informatization investment exists, an AX Readiness Map—which compares AI expertise, industrial data, user companies, resident services, and administrative AI levels by city/county using the same standards—is not available in the publicly available evidence. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
North Gyeongsang Province has also identified the decentralization, fragmentation, and overlapping investments centered on existing administrative districts as a problem and has been pursuing a Mega-Tech Alliance City and regional development plans since 2026. Starting with eight cities and counties in the northern region, the province is identifying interconnected projects through policy consultations with 22 cities and counties, and since July, strategic meetings of the 'Gyeongbuk+22 Economic One Team' have been touring the cities and counties. The policy direction is shifting from decentralization to connectivity . ( North Gyeongsang Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
However, what is currently confirmed in the publicly available evidence is the linkage plan and governance . It has not yet been sufficiently verified whether manufacturing AI from Gumi has actually transferred to the productivity of manufacturing companies in Yeongju, Sangju, and Mungyeong, whether data and AI computing assets from Pohang have been utilized in the industries of Andong, Uiseong, and Bonghwa, or whether industrial alliance strategies have translated into employment, businesses, and income in regions experiencing population decline.
Therefore, the core structure of the Gyeongbuk AX gap is as follows.
Existing industry gap → AI and data access gap → Corporate AX adoption gap → Productivity gap → Employment and income gap → Youth mobility → Demographic and fiscal gap
If the leading AX assets of Gumi and Pohang are not converted into Shared AX Infrastructure that can be reused by the entire Gyeongbuk region within the next two to three years , it is highly likely that the existing gap in population decline will become entrenched as a new structural gap between 'regions that use AI to increase productivity' and 'regions that consume AI services.'
Gyeongbuk has the largest land area among all metropolitan and provincial governments in the country, covering 18,424 km², and comprises 22 cities and counties, as well as 321 eups, myeons, and dongs. Its population is projected to reach approximately 2,506,000 by the end of 2025. The provisional GRDP for 2024 is 134 trillion won, and the industrial structure consists of 41.4% mining and manufacturing, 43.7% services, and 5.2% agriculture, forestry, and fisheries. While manufacturing accounts for a high proportion, the industrial structure varies significantly by region. ( Gyeongbuk Provincial Government )
With the new release of GRDP data for cities and counties based on 2023 in June 2026, an official baseline has been secured to compare the economic scale and industrial structure of 22 cities and counties. However, since the base year is 2023, the investment effects of the AX Demonstration Industrial Complex, AI Data Center, and new high-tech industries in 2025–2026 are not yet reflected. This statistic should be used as a Historical Official Baseline , and subsequent changes must be supplemented with Runtime data.
The regional structure is already divided into two groups. Areas such as Pohang, Gumi, Gyeongju, Gyeongsan, Chilgok, and Gimcheon have relatively strong foundations in industry, universities, transportation, and businesses, whereas the 15 government-designated areas of population decline are Andong, Yeongju, Yeongcheon, Sangju, Mungyeong, Uiseong, Cheongsong, Yeongyang, Yeongdeok, Cheongdo, Goryeong, Seongju, Bonghwa, Uljin, and Ulleung. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
It is a structure where the AX transition is unlikely to proceed at the same speed.
Gyeongbuk’s Megatech Alliance City strategy connects AI and semiconductors to Pohang, Gyeongju, Andong, Yecheon, Gumi, and Gyeongsan; future mobility to Gyeongju, Gimcheon, Yeongju, Yeongcheon, Gyeongsan, and Chilgok; and biotechnology to Pohang, Andong, Sangju, Uiseong, and Yecheon. It expands energy to Pohang, Gyeongju, Yeongdeok, and Uljin, and defense to Pohang, Gyeongju, Gimcheon, Gumi, Yeongju, and Uiseong. This structure aims to shift industrial policy from an administrative district-centered approach to a functional industrial network. ( Southern Construction Office )
However, actual investment and AX infrastructure show significant regional disparities. While AX demonstration industrial complexes, large-scale manufacturing companies, and data and R&D infrastructure have already materialized in Gumi and Pohang, many regions experiencing population decline are allocated to follow-up functions of industrial coalition cities, such as materials, demonstration, reuse, energy, and agricultural machinery. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
Therefore, the following distinction is necessary.
- Designation of industrial alliance ≠ industrial connection
- Policy Consultation ≠ Supply Contract
- AI infrastructure construction ≠ joint use by cities and counties
- Identifying joint projects ≠ Improving regional productivity
- Expansion of IT projects ≠ AX Readiness equalization
The current assessment is that the Policy Network is being formed, but the outcome of the Economic Network is a Data Gap.
The first structural change in Gyeongbuk is the shift from independent industrial policies by city and county to joint industrial policies based on function . Looking solely at semiconductors, a self-reliant ecosystem has been proposed connecting Gumi's materials and components, Pohang's power semiconductors, and Yeongju's specialty gas materials; meanwhile, for secondary batteries, functions have been divided into Pohang and Sangju materials, the East Coast ESS, mobility electrification in the southern region, and the demonstration of agricultural machinery using reused batteries in the northern region. (Gyeongbuk Provincial Government )
The second change is that the unit of informatization is expanding from a provincial government-centered system to a province plus a community system comprising 22 cities and counties . Under the 2026–2030 Basic Plan for Intelligent Informatization, approximately 720 projects worth about 142.6 billion won are being implemented simultaneously across the province, cities, and counties. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
Third, population policy is also being expanded into an economic strategy for all cities and counties. By 2026, Gyeongbuk will expand its existing region-specific visa policy, which focused on 15 areas with declining populations, to all 22 cities and counties. By applying F-2-R and E-7-4R visas to these declining areas and a pilot wide-area visa program to the remaining five cities and counties, the province aims to connect the attraction and settlement of industry-tailored foreign talent. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
The AX gap is therefore not just a technology issue. It is shifting due to differences in the simultaneous transition speeds of industry, talent, population, and administration .
Gyeongsangbuk-do is fully launching its regional development plan for 22 cities and counties by 2026. Starting with the eight cities and counties in the northern region, the approach involves collecting pending issues and development tasks from each area and identifying inter-city collaborative projects that fit the "United City" model. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
In July, coinciding with the launch of the 9th popular election administration, the 'Gyeongbuk+22 Economic One Team' strategic meetings began. Starting with Gyeongsan and Pohang, the structure involves provincial economic and industrial departments touring cities and counties to directly coordinate regional industrial issues and policy finance projects. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
In the area of informatization, the heads of IT departments from 22 cities and counties discussed a joint cooperation system for 2026 and began sharing 720 projects at the provincial level. The structure has shifted from one where individual cities and counties independently pursued digital projects to a stage where at least project information and implementation directions are shared. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
594 billion won across 126 projects will be invested in 2026 to address population decline . The policy cycle is also shifting to an outcome review stage, involving a review of 2025 performance results followed by deliberation on the 2026 implementation plan. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
However, the common Readiness indicators for the 22 cities and counties that group this policy group from an AX perspective are not yet confirmed in the public evidence.
The regional disparity problem in Gyeongbuk is of a different type than that of the Seoul metropolitan area.
The Seoul Metropolitan Area faces a severe problem of hyper-concentration of industry and population in specific southern regions. Gyeongbuk, on the other hand, has a structure where industries and living areas are physically dispersed across a vast area, and high-tech industrial hubs exist only as scattered points, with many cities and counties having entered a phase of population decline .
The fact that 15 out of 22 cities and counties are officially designated as areas of population decline implies that if new AI and high-tech industry policies merely follow the existing spatial structure, their effects are highly likely to be concentrated in a few key hubs. (Gyeongsangbuk -do Provincial Government )
On the other hand, Gyeongbuk’s strengths lie in its 41.4% manufacturing sector and numerous regionally specialized industries. The productivity gap can be narrowed by applying Gumi and Pohang’s AX technology to existing industries, rather than by fostering general-purpose AI companies in every city and county. ( Gyeongbuk Provincial Government )
Gyeongbuk's competitive strategy is determined to be Shared Infrastructure + Local Problem Ownership, not Same Infrastructure Everywhere .
Gyeongbuk has 22 cities and counties.
There are 15 areas with declining populations.
Two locations are areas of concern regarding population decline. ( Gyeongbuk Provincial Government )
Therefore, 17 out of 22 locations fall into the risk zone of population decline.
594 billion won across 126 projects will be invested to address population decline by 2026. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
There are approximately 720 informatization projects at the provincial and city/county levels, totaling about 142.6 billion won. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
48.1 billion won will be invested in the Gumi-Pohang AX Demonstration Industrial Complex. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
Gyeongbuk's 2026 provincial budget is 14.0363 trillion won. ( Gyeongbuk Provincial Government )
These numbers cannot be added up into a single total score.
However, structural asymmetry is confirmed.
Although the problem of population decline exists extensively in most cities and counties in Gyeongbuk, advanced AX infrastructure is still being formed first in a few industrial hubs.
Therefore, future performance should be judged by the Diffusion Rate rather than the AX investment amount.
The key is the conversion rate from leading AX hubs to non-hub cities and counties.
The biggest gap is between AI production bases and AI utilization areas .
While manufacturing data, open labs, and digital twins are being established in Gumi and Pohang, there are no disclosed outcomes regarding whether businesses, agriculture, and administration in areas such as Yeongyang, Bonghwa, Cheongsong, Uiseong, and Sangju can actually utilize these assets.
The second point concerns the gap between industrial and population policies . While Gyeongbuk implements foreign talent policies across all 22 cities and counties, separate tracking is required to determine how closely the talent flowing into the region connects with the local high-tech and manufacturing AX job functions. Although 1,638 individuals were attracted to population-declining regions via region-specific visas by 2025, publicly available data linking this to long-term settlement, job performance, and income outcomes is limited. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
The third point concerns the relationship between informatization projects and AX productivity . Even with over 720 projects, if AI utilization rates, data standards, and common platform reuse rates differ by city and county, digital investment itself can create a gap again. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
The fourth point concerns the connection between metropolitan coalition cities and actual businesses . While policy maps connect multiple cities and counties, Network Outcomes—showing joint R&D, supply contracts, personnel exchanges, and data utilization rates—are not yet sufficient.
Gyeongbuk needs a 22-City/County AX Readiness Map .
The minimum indicator can be composed of the following six axes.
- Industry Base
- AI/Data Access
- Talent
- Business Adoption
- Government AX
- Resident Outcome
Each city and county should not be reduced to a single comprehensive score, and the gaps between sectors must be maintained as they are.
In the metropolitan area, Gumi manufacturing data, Pohang computing and digital twin, and AI resources from universities and research institutes are provided as Shared AX Infrastructure , and cities and counties must define their own industrial problems.
Institutionally, rather than managing 720 informatization projects as separate project lists, it is necessary to standardize them to reuse common technology, data, security, and AI functions.
Currently, the expansion of AX in Gyeongbuk is in the early stages of transitioning from a leading hub to a non-hub. The Gumi-Pohang AX Demonstration Industrial Complex officially aims to spread verified autonomous manufacturing models to other industrial complexes; however, as of 2026, the demonstration is still in its early stages, so the actual number of companies expanding and productivity outcomes have not yet occurred or have not been disclosed. ( Gyeongbuk Provincial Government )
In terms of population policy, the regional specialized visa program has been confirmed to have successfully attracted 1,638 foreigners to areas experiencing population decline. By 2026, the scope of application was expanded to cover all 22 cities and counties. The next verification step involves assessing whether the incoming population has settled for at least three years and how much it has reduced labor shortages in local businesses. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
The biggest data gap at present is that while regional policy inputs are confirmed, it is difficult to compare the outcomes of AX on resident income, corporate productivity, and youth settlement by city and county using the same standard .
In fact, three different AX time zones coexist in Gyeongbuk.
The leading AX regions are Gumi and Pohang. Manufacturing AX demonstration and large-scale investment in advanced industries have already entered the implementation phase. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
Transformation-type industrial zones include Gyeongju, Gyeongsan, Gimcheon, Yeongcheon, and Andong. This is a stage where existing industries or new high-tech industries are combined with AI, mobility, bio, and nuclear power. ( Southern Construction Office )
Population-declining AX regions are mostly county areas. In these regions, AXs involving agriculture, tourism, forestry, energy, living services, and local administration are more likely to be a realistic productivity path than attracting large-scale high-tech factories.
Therefore, the balanced development of AX in Gyeongbuk should be designed not to disperse the same industry, but to connect different AX roles in each region .
In 2026, three time axes began simultaneously.
The Gumi-Pohang AX Demonstration Industrial Complex is a project for 2026–2029. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
The Gyeongbuk Intelligent Informationization Master Plan covers the period 2026–2030. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
The Megatech Alliance City and regional development plans for 22 cities and counties also began in earnest in 2026. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
If common data standards, a common platform, and AX roles for each city and county are not determined within the next two to three years, connection costs will increase after each region establishes separate information systems, support projects, and data structures.
The time risk is greater in terms of population. In 15 regions experiencing population decline, there is a possibility that the decline in youth and skilled workers will occur before industrial transition.
If you intervene now, you can design a shared usage structure for AI assets rather than distributed installation .
12-1. Golden Time Application Case in Basic Local Governments ① — Yeongju City
Yeongju is officially a region of population decline, yet it has been included in multiple value chains for semiconductor specialty gas-based materials, future mobility, and defense in the 2026 Megatech Strategy. Rather than being a region facing simple extinction, its role is being established as a Network Node for high-tech industries. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
The Readiness GAP is the connection between industrial roles and AX infrastructure. The system must be designed so that companies based in Yeongju actually utilize Gumi semiconductor AX and manufacturing data, converting it into joint R&D, quality forecasting, and supply contracts. The Golden Time is 2026–2028, when the policy unit is transitioned from 'support for population decline areas' to 'advanced industrial functional areas .'
12-2. Golden Time Application Cases in Basic Local Governments ② — Uiseong-gun
Although Uiseong is officially designated as a region of population decline, it is included in the Megatech Strategy as a linkage area between the bio and defense industries and is also subject to region-based immigration policies. This creates a structure where population and industrial policies intersect within the same region. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
The Readiness GAP lies between managing the incoming population simply as resident numbers and utilizing them as industrial talent. The process of region-specific visas → job matching → local enterprise AX → settlement must be connected as a single runtime. Uiseong's Golden Time is the initial 2 to 3 years during which population policy can be transformed into industrial productivity policy .
If Gyeongbuk misses the current connectivity design, AX investment could exacerbate existing economic disparities.
Gumi and Pohang are growing into regions that produce and apply AI, while regions with declining populations may remain as areas that purchase AI services.
The second risk is digital silos . If approximately 720 IT projects become entrenched as independent systems within each city and county, the integration costs for common AI agents, data analysis, and security systems will increase in the future. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
The third factor is the loss of function in areas experiencing population decline. If young people and skilled workers leave first, even if industrial alliance cities are assigned roles in the future, actual businesses and talent may not remain.
Gyeongbuk does not need to install data centers and AI research institutes in every city and county.
Gumi and Pohang's leading AX infrastructure should be established as a common foundation, and Yeongju, Sangju, Mungyeong, Uiseong, Yeongdeok, Uljin, etc. should provide local industry solutions.
In this structure, even small cities and counties can utilize advanced AI resources without large-scale initial investment.
The role of the metropolitan area
Central Capability + Distributed Application
It is compressed into.
Performance should be judged not by the number of AI facilities, but by the number of companies, farms, and administrative services with improved actual productivity in non-base areas .
Changes to observe | Things to do with AX | Policy decision | Verification indicators |
| Disparity among 22 cities and counties | AX Readiness Map | Differentiated support by sector | 6-axis GAP |
| Gumi-Pohang Leading AX | Shared AX Infrastructure | Wide-area joint use | Non-base utilization rate |
| 720 IT projects | Common Architecture · API | Adjustment of duplicate investments | Reuse rate |
| 15 regions with population decline | Local Problem AX | Focus on industrial and lifestyle-oriented tasks | Productivity and Settlement |
| Megatech United City | Industrial Function Network Map | Investment by function | Collaboration between cities and counties |
| foreign talent | Industry Job Matching | Visa + Corporate Linkage | 3-year settlement rate |
| small and medium-sized enterprises | Shared AI·PoC | Hollowing out of demonstration costs | Introduction → Mass Production |
| Regional universities and talent | Wide Area Talent Pool | Project Cycle | Movement between cities and counties |
| City and county administration | Shared Government AI | Common Agent provided | Working Hours · Outcome |
| Regional spread | Diffusion Runtime | Reallocation of follow-up investment | Speed of gap reduction |
Runtime
Region-based → AI/Data access → Field PoC → Actual application → Productivity/service improvement → Business/employment/income → Population settlement → Expansion or reduction of city/county gap
Opportunity + Structural Divergence Risk
Gyeongbuk's metropolitan AX Readiness is quite high.
The Basic Plan for Intelligent Informationization for 2026–2030 exists, and approximately 720 informatization projects worth 142.6 billion won are being implemented at the provincial and city/county levels. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Sericulture and Insect Business Center )
Gumi and Pohang have become the nation's top-tier manufacturing AX demonstration hubs. ( Gyeongsangbuk-do Provincial Government )
North Gyeongsang Province has defined administrative district fragmentation as an official issue and is pursuing a policy of linking the Megatech United City with regional areas across its 22 cities and counties. ( Southern Construction Office )
However, the demographic structure consisting of 15 regions with population decline and 2 regions of interest indicates that if the spread of AX is slow, regional disparities could become entrenched more rapidly. ( Gyeongbuk Provincial Government )
Currently, there is a lack of common outcome data in the publicly available evidence to determine how much AX assets in Gumi and Pohang have spread to productivity, corporate growth, employment, and settlement in non-base cities and counties.
Therefore, the assessment is Opportunity + Structural Divergence Risk .
The opportunity lies in the fact that it is an early stage to build Shared AX Infrastructure.
The risk is the possibility that existing population and industrial gaps will be reshaped into AI productivity gaps .
- AI and Informatization Budget by 22 Cities and Counties
- AI specialists by city/county
- Public data linkage volume by city/county
- Number of manufacturing and service companies adopting AI by city/county
- AI PoC → Actual Operation Conversion Rate
- Number of Gumi/Pohang AX model reuses in external cities/counties
- Shared AI utilization rate of non-base companies
- Pohang Computing Infrastructure Usage by Region
- Smart Factory and Autonomous Manufacturing Adoption Rates by City/County
- Changes in corporate productivity by city and county
- Increase and decrease in businesses by city/county
- Employment and wages by region
- Youth net migration
- Net mobility of skilled workers
- Number of incoming visitors for region-specific visas
- 1- and 3-year retention rates of foreign talent
- Employment rate of foreign talent in local industries
- University and Training Talent Production by City/County
- duplication rate of provincial and city/county informatization projects
- Common Platform and API Reuse Rate
- Number of cities and counties using Shared Government AI
- Number of Megatech Joint R&D Projects
- New supply contracts between cities and counties
- Changes in GRDP and Exports in Non-Hub Regions
- Annual changes in AX GAP of 22 cities and counties
Data GAP: Currently, Gyeongbuk possesses statistics on industry, population, informatization, and investment, but the AX Readiness Runtime, which connects AI access → actual utilization → productivity → employment/income → population settlement based on the same criteria for 22 cities and counties, is not publicly available.
Runtime Chain
Existing local industries → Access to AI/Data → Demonstration → Field application → Productivity/Commercialization → Employment/Income → Talent retention → Local reinvestment → Widening or narrowing of the AX gap
The core structure originates from the official distribution of areas experiencing population decline. Of the 22 cities and counties in North Gyeongsang Province, 15 are classified as areas of population decline, with Gimcheon and Gyeongju being areas of interest. Spatial disparities in economic and talent infrastructure have existed extensively since before the spread of high-tech industries began. ( North Gyeongsang Provincial Government )
On the other side are the Gumi-Pohang AX Demonstration Industrial Complex scheduled for 2026 and over 720 informatization projects across the province, cities, and counties. In other words, Gyeongbuk has shifted from being a region lacking AX investment to one where the key issue is how far to expand AX assets . ( Gyeongbuk Provincial Government )
North Gyeongsang Province’s simultaneous pursuit of the Megatech Alliance City and regional development plans for its 22 cities and counties aligns with the policy judgment that it is difficult to bridge these gaps using existing administrative district-based industrial policies. However, current evidence only verifies network designs and does not demonstrate the actual convergence of productivity across cities and counties. ( Southern Construction Office )
There is only one structural insight. The balanced development of AX in Gyeongbuk is not a matter of evenly distributing AI facilities across 22 cities and counties, but rather a matter of 'dispersing access' to enable regions with declining populations to use advanced AI, data, and computing assets, which are first created in Gumi and Pohang, as actual means of production.
Golden Time Thesis — The AX Golden Time for the 22 cities and counties of Gyeongsangbuk-do is not a period for dividing high-tech industry investments by region. The key lies in whether, within the next two to three years, we can transform the manufacturing AI, data, and computing assets of Gumi and Pohang into a wide-area Shared AX Infrastructure and connect them with the industrial, agricultural, tourism, and administrative issues of population-declining regions such as Yeongju, Sangju, Mungyeong, Uiseong, Yeongdeok, and Bonghwa to create a diffusion pathway of AI access → field application → productivity → employment/income → settlement. In Gyeongbuk, which has 15 regions experiencing population decline, if this connection is delayed, the existing population gap could become entrenched as an AX productivity gap between "regions that create AI to increase productivity" and "regions that consume AI." Conversely, if opportunities for AI utilization are distributed rather than facilities, Gyeongbuk's vast and dispersed spatial structure can become the largest Distributed AX Testbed in South Korea, rather than a weakness.
Version | Reference Date/Revision Date | Major changes |
| v1.0 | 2026.08.28 | Based on Regional AX Golden Time Intelligence v3.2, the AX disparity across the 22 cities and counties of Gyeongbuk was analyzed for the first time. The study cross-referenced the projected population of Gyeongbuk at the end of 2025 (approximately 2.506 million across 22 cities and counties), 15 population decline areas, and 2 areas of interest; the 126 projects totaling 594 billion KRW to address population decline in 2026; over 720 informatization projects totaling approximately 142.6 billion KRW across the province and cities/counties; the 48.1 billion KRW Gumi-Pohang AX Demonstration Industrial Complex; the Mega-Tech Alliance City; regional development plans for the 22 cities and counties; and region-based immigration policies for all cities and counties. It presented a diffusion structure of Cluster Concentration → Shared AX Infrastructure → Local Problem AX → Productivity, Employment, and Population Settlement, and analyzed Yeongju and Uiseong as application cases for basic local governments. The Golden Time was determined to be Opportunity + Structural Divergence Risk. |
