BMW Group Korea said Thursday it has signed an initial pact with a provincial government to build a research and development center to provide advanced mobility services to local customers.

BMW Korea signed a memorandum of understanding with the Incheon metropolitan city and the Korean Free Economic Zones to build the BMW R&D Center Korea in the Cheongna Incheon Hi-Tech Park by 2023 to advance R&D projects involving autonomous driving, connectivity and electrification, the company said in a statement.

"BMW Korea will cooperate with its German parent group and Korean companies in developing future mobility technologies in the new center," it said. 

BMW has had an R&D unit within the BMW Driving Center in Incheon, 40 kilometers west of Seoul, since 2015. It was the company's fifth overseas R&D facility after ones in the United States, China, Japan and Brazil, the statement said.

The existing R&D unit will be absorbed by the new R&D center, BMW said. (Yonhap)