Gwangju City Selected as Target for Green Startup Town Development Project

Ministry of SMEs and Startups Leads... 35 Billion KRW National Budget Invested to Establish Complex Hub Center

Aerial view of Green Startup Town. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 13th that it has been finally selected as the target of the ‘Green Startup Town Development Project’ hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

Accordingly, following Station G of the ‘Gwangju Station Economic Base-type Urban Regeneration New Deal Project’ promoted since 2018 and the Corporate Innovation Growth Center of the ‘Urban Regeneration Innovation District National Pilot Zone’ selected last year, the city has secured a total of three growth-stage corporate support infrastructures, including the Complex Hub Center of the ‘Green Startup Town Development Project,’ laying the foundation for creating the largest startup complex in the Honam region.

In particular, it is expected to generate a production inducement effect of 2 trillion KRW and create more than 16,000 jobs.

The Green Startup Town Development Project is a new concept startup hub project that benchmarks King’s Cross Station, a successful case of urban regeneration in the UK, combining startup support infrastructure with living infrastructure such as residential, cultural, and transportation facilities.

With a total project cost of 35 billion KRW, including 14.5 billion KRW in national funds, a Complex Hub Center, an R&D support facility for startup companies, will be established.

Gwangju plans to concentrate and systematize a Gwangju-type startup ecosystem around Gwangju Station to nurture future core industries and increase the survival rate of startup companies. In line with the government’s green-digital new industry promotion policy, it will focus on fostering startups in key local industries such as eco-friendly energy, smart bio, and artificial intelligence (AI).

Gwangju will sequentially establish by 2025 the following facilities around Gwangju Station through the economic base-type urban regeneration New Deal project, the Urban Regeneration Innovation District project, and the Green Startup Town Development Project: the ‘Station G’ for early-stage startup support facilities; the ‘Complex Hub Center’ for R&D advancement support facilities; the ‘Corporate Innovation Growth Center’ for startup growth (Scale-Up) and linkage with senior startups; the ‘Social Culture Innovation Center’ as a platform for social economy enterprises and cultural complex space; and ‘Job-linked Housing’ to provide comfortable living conditions for workers in the startup cluster.

The ‘Complex Hub Center’ will select and intensively nurture a total of 30 promising technology startup companies in target industries such as energy, medical and healthcare, and artificial intelligence (AI). It will also house local and external institutions (branches) and corporate research institutes such as Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) to focus on enhancing the technological competitiveness of promising startups.

Regarding the selection in this public contest project, Gwangju has signed business promotion agreements with existing partner organizations such as Gwangju Technopark, Gwangju Center for Creative Economy and Innovation, and Chonnam National University, as well as Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Korea Electric Power Corporation, and Korea Angel Investment Association. It has been evaluated that the continuous and organic collaboration with partner organizations, including selecting eco-friendly energy, smart bio, and artificial intelligence (AI) as core nurturing industries, and establishing concrete business plans and continuous and effective operation strategies, led to this achievement.

Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, said, “The startup support infrastructure project around Gwangju Station will become an innovation growth platform where the industrial structure centered on startups is transformed and our youth can realize their dreams.” He added, “We will do our best to create a solid infrastructure where young people with excellent imagination and ideas can succeed in startups.”