23 Local Anchor Industries Selected... 500 Million KRW Support for Commercialization

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daeseop] The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 7th that it has selected 23 projects for the 'Si/Gun/Gu Local Industry Promotion Project' to foster small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in local industries based on specialized resources and technologies in non-capital region cities, counties, and districts.

This project selects tasks to foster traditional and local industries with high growth potential within the region and supports commercialization costs (prototype production, testing/certification, marketing, etc.) of around 500 million KRW per project. Further support will be provided for up to three years based on evaluations of each project.

In particular, this year, the aim was to encourage mid- to long-term (up to three years) growth hubs for local industries and the establishment of collaboration systems among companies. A total of 83 projects were submitted from 14 non-capital metropolitan local governments, showing a competition rate of 4 to 1.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups focused on the relevance to the main industries of the city/province, the local government's willingness to foster the industry, effectiveness such as employment, and growth potential when reviewing the applications, selecting one to two excellent projects per non-capital city/province.

Looking at the types of selected projects, there were 9 in machinery and materials (39%), 7 in bio and medical (30%), 4 in chemistry (18%), 2 in electricity and electronics (9%), and 1 in energy and resources (4%), indicating high demand for productization and high value-added development of regionally specialized resources.

Gwak Jaekyung, head of the Regional Special Zone Division at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, said, "We expect that fostering small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in local industries with high growth potential in cities, counties, and districts will revitalize the difficult regional economy by creating employment and sales within the region."