ITCEN Entec, an IT services company in ITCEN Group, said on Monday it signed a contract after being selected as lead consortium company for a smart aquaculture big data centre project.

The project applies advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to the fisheries aquaculture sector. It is worth about 10 billion won, with 70 percent funded by the national government (Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries) and 30 percent by the Busan city government. It is to be carried out for 18 months from the contract date.

ITCEN Entec plans to pursue a shift in the aquaculture industry paradigm by combining smart aquaculture and big data through building an AI big data centre for the sector. It plans to focus its technical capabilities so Busan can play a leading role in building a data-based, future-oriented aquaculture industry.

ITCEN Entec plans to complete the project successfully, secure technical credibility in related areas and use that as a springboard to expand ITCEN Group's core strategy of Web3 business in earnest.

The project itself focuses on improving seafood productivity and what it calls AX in the fisheries sector, but it said capabilities built in managing large-scale industrial data and experience in building refined datasets could be closely linked to expanding the group's digital asset ecosystem. It also plans to take a leading role in national AX projects such as a national AI data centre and an ocean and navy AI decision-support project.

An ITCEN Entec official said, "As this project is the first attempt in South Korea to build an AI big data centre for fisheries aquaculture, it will make a key contribution to Busan's leap into a mecca for the future aquaculture industry." The official added, "By successfully carrying out the project, we will complete the smart transformation of the aquaculture industry and further expand our business area to a future financial ecosystem where data becomes an asset, linked with the group's Web3 capabilities."