Jeonnam Province Launches Full-Scale Implementation of '2030 Bioindustry Development Strategy'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province announced on the 27th that it has established the ‘2030 Bioindustry Development Strategy’ to ensure the success of the Blue Bio Project, respond to the ‘post-COVID-19’ era, and foster new bioindustries, planning to invest 4.4535 trillion KRW by 2030 to actively promote 54 core detailed tasks.

This Jeonnam bioindustry development strategy consists of seven strategic projects encompassing pharmaceuticals, agricultural life sciences, and marine bio, aiming to build a sustainable bioindustry ecosystem by integrating medical resources and to develop Jeonnam into a global hub.

Key projects include investing 195.5 billion KRW in eight projects to establish vaccine and healthcare business bases.

In response to the recent expansion of the global vaccine market due to super-aging and the spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19, the plan is to complete a full-cycle national vaccine and healthcare hub?from vaccine R&D to clinical trials, commercialization, and approval?centered on the Hwasun Vaccine Industrial Complex, the only one of its kind in Korea.

For nine projects aimed at building an advanced immune cell therapy ecosystem, 436.3 billion KRW will be invested.

Focusing on the ‘Immune Therapy Platform Construction Project (Ministry of Science and ICT, 46 billion KRW)’ currently being attracted to the Hwasun Vaccine Industrial Complex, R&D and infrastructure will be expanded to secure original technologies for immune therapy targeting intractable rare diseases (cancer, dementia, etc.), aiming to capture the global market worth 165 trillion KRW annually.

For attracting and establishing the National Advanced Medical Complex, seven projects will receive 1.8147 trillion KRW, with plans to attract the complex by 2022 by integrating Jeonnam’s abundant bio and medical resources.

Particularly, efforts will focus on a medical and healing complex service platform linking medical care, pharmaceuticals, and therapy, as well as core smart healthcare technologies utilizing AI, synchrotron radiation accelerators, and others.

Additionally, 973.6 billion KRW will be invested in five projects to build a marine bio industrial cluster, establishing a future fisheries ecosystem based on abundant marine resources, and actively promoting policies to develop high value-added industries by advancing marine healing complexes (140.2 billion KRW) and marine bioindustry clusters (116 billion KRW).

Alongside this, 622 billion KRW will support eight projects fostering innovative smart agricultural life industries.

In preparation for climate change, declining agricultural populations, and aging, an advanced agricultural production platform incorporating 4th Industrial Revolution technologies (unmanned, automated, AI) will be established, and a subtropical arboretum and forest bio hub utilizing Jeonnam’s subtropical forest resources will be built to focus on discovering and industrializing functional materials such as antibacterial, antiviral, and fragrance materials.

Furthermore, 139.5 billion KRW will be allocated to 10 projects for establishing natural product industry demonstration and production complexes, and 271.9 billion KRW to seven projects for building a bio venture support system.

The province expects that upon completion of the development strategy by 2030, total sales will reach 4.5 trillion KRW and 40,000 new jobs will be created. It is also anticipated that the linkage of the synchrotron accelerator with pharmaceuticals, agricultural life sciences, and marine bio will greatly contribute to the re-advancement of Jeonnam’s bioindustry.

Yoon Byung-tae, Jeollanam-do Deputy Governor for Political Affairs, said, “Since the 7th local government, Jeonnam Province has steadily built bio R&D and infrastructure through proactive and focused investment in the bioindustry. Going forward, we will definitely attract the synchrotron accelerator and, based on this, successfully implement the ‘2030 Bioindustry Development Strategy’ to foster Jeonnam as a global hub for the bioindustry.”