The South Korean city of Busan has taken a significant step toward securing its role in future global shipping with the launch of the Arctic Shipping Route Task Force. The task force held its first official meeting on February 13, bringing together industry leaders, researchers and policymakers to discuss strategies for integrating Busan into the evolving Northern Sea Route, a key Arctic passage that could reshape maritime trade.
Busan City had announced that in order to secure a strategic advantage in the global trade economy through the development of the Arctic route in a situation where the melting of Arctic ice is accelerating due to global warming, it will form the "Busan Arctic Route Development Task Force (TF)" and hold its first (Kick Off) meeting February 13 to begin establishing a preemptive preparation system.
This is the first meeting held since the formation of the task force (TF) with shipping companies, academia, and research institutes in December 2024, and is being promoted to establish a strategy for developing Busan as an Arctic route hub city.
The task force (TF) is comprised of 19 members including the Vice Mayor of Future Innovation, shipping companies, academia, research institutes, public institutions, and the media, and aims to share domestic and international trends and research results by field, hear various possibilities from shipping companies with experience in operating the Arctic Ocean route, specify future directions, and derive realization tasks and develop policy tasks in preparation for the future Arctic route era.
The meeting began with a keynote speech by Professor Emeritus Kim Tae-yu of Seoul National University on the topic of 'Necessity and Strategy for Attracting a Base Port for the Arctic Route', followed by a presentation on trends and operating experiences related to the Arctic route, and by an open discussion among the task force (TF) members.
In particular, Kim Eom-ji, Director of the Northern Polar Strategy Research Center at the Korea Maritime Institute (KMI), presented the results of her research on trends in each country related to the Arctic route, Lee Myeong-wook, Project Sales Team Manager at Pan Ocean, shared his experience participating in the government-promoted Arctic route operation, and Jang Ha-yong, Director of the Future Strategy Center at the Busan Research Institute, presented on what the city needs to prepare for in order to open up the Arctic route.
Meanwhile, expectations for Arctic maritime transport as a new route that can replace the instability of the Suez Canal caused by climate change and the Red Sea incident have grown, and countries such as the US and China are rushing to establish Arctic maritime transport policies. Accordingly, the city plans to review tasks for preemptive policy establishment and revitalization of related industries, starting with Busan Port, the best port in Northeast Asia.
In addition, by referring to the cases of the pilot operation of the Arctic route that has been promoted by the government so far, we will specify the direction of the development of the Arctic route and prepare related support measures, and we will not stop at the Busan Arctic route development task force (TF) meeting, but will hold an Arctic route discussion this year to discuss various measures with experts in each field and raise the interest of citizens to gain government support.
Kim Gwang-hoe, Vice Mayor for Future Innovation, said: “Busan Port is currently the world’s second largest transshipment port and the world’s seventh largest port in terms of container handling volume, and has the power to lead the national economic development as a forward base for export and import trade representing our country. We will seek preemptive moves to once again become the main axis of the Korean economy in preparation for the coming Arctic Ocean era centered around Busan Port.”
He added:
The Busan Arctic Route Development Task Force (TF) will establish the direction to take in the future through this first meeting and gather opinions from experts in each field regarding the development of the Arctic Route so that we can move one step closer to realizing the vision of ‘Global Hub City Busan.’
Source: Our Neighbor News (in Korean), Arctic Today
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