Prime Minister Lee: "From Ideas to Startups, From Startups to Unicorns"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Sim Nayoung] Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon stated, "There are periodic policy programs prepared to ensure that the creative ideas of the people connect to startups and that startup companies rapidly develop into unicorns." A unicorn company is a startup with a corporate value of over 1 billion dollars.

On the morning of the 4th, Prime Minister Lee visited the 'Design-Driven Product Development Support Center' and 'Maker Space' within the startup support space G·CAMP in Gasan-dong, Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, and made these remarks.

The Design-Driven Product Development Center supports the rapid commercialization of ideas and design-driven product development. The Maker Space is being established nationwide by the government since last year to allow anyone to freely realize creative ideas.

At this location, Prime Minister Lee experienced the prototype production process where ideas are turned into products and visited the 'Seoul Hardware Hackathon' event site held at G·CAMP, encouraging startup entrepreneurs.

The Seoul Hardware Hackathon is an event that recruits and selects participating teams from students and the general public, evaluates their results, and selects outstanding teams. This event, held over two days on the 4th and 5th, has 20 teams (about 80 people) participating under the theme of 'Low-Power Long-Distance Communication Technology.'

Prime Minister Lee stated, "Last year, our country's venture investment amount set a record high, and the number of startup corporations also recorded an all-time high, showing a leap forward."