South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT is speeding up work to draft lower-level regulations for the Special Act on Promoting the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Centre Industry.

The ministry formed a working group to draft lower-level rules for the special act, which was promulgated on June 9, and held a kickoff meeting in Seoul on June 18.

The act sets out special provisions including one-stop processing of permits and approvals through the ministry and a timeout system; an exemption from power grid impact assessments when building or expanding an AI data centre below a certain size outside the Seoul metropolitan area or converting an existing data centre into an AI data centre; and eased standards for facility installations that had been applied in the same way as for general buildings.

It also includes support measures across the AI data centre industry, including the definition of an AI data centre, fact-finding surveys, workforce training, support for overseas expansion and cooperation with local communities.

The ministry plans to operate the working group, made up of AI data centre and legal experts, to quickly prepare a draft of the lower-level regulations. It plans to collect a wide range of views from private-sector experts and stakeholders on key issues such as the definition of an AI data centre and regulatory special cases to draw up effective rules.

Choi Dong-won (최동원), director-general for AI infrastructure policy at the ministry, said the special act is aimed at strengthening South Korea's competitiveness in AI infrastructure by supporting the early construction of AI data centres and attracting investment from the private sector. He said the ministry would do its best to quickly prepare the lower-level regulations through close communication with relevant ministries and the industry.