Hong Nampyo, Mayor of Changwon, Takes Active Steps to Foster Future New Industries

Future New Industry Drone and Urban Air Mobility Industry

Hong Nampyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam, actively took steps to foster future new industries by visiting the ‘2023 Drone Show Korea’ held at BEXCO in Busan on the 25th. He toured drone technology exhibits by visiting local organizations such as the ‘Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute’, ‘Youngpoong Electronics’, and ‘MGIT’.

The ‘2023 Drone Show Korea’ is a prestigious central government event hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the Ministry of National Defense. A total of 138 outstanding companies, including Korean Air, ETRI, and PABLO AIR, which are fostering the future urban air mobility industry, are participating.

Hong Nampyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam, visited the '2023 Drone Show Korea' and took active steps to foster future new industries.

Two Changwon companies participated in this drone show: ▲Youngpoong Electronics, established in 1986, is a small but strong company dedicated to the defense industry for over 35 years. Since 2019, it has secured core drone development technologies and possesses technology for manned aircraft components. The company focuses on flight control technology, navigation device technology, development of avionics products, and in-house aircraft design and development.

In particular, its technological capabilities and research and development skills were recognized when it was selected as a drone sector defense innovation company in the ‘Defense Innovation Company 100’ project led by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration in 2022. At this exhibition, it showcased excellent technologies such as flight control (attack drones, GCS, FCC), integrated navigation devices, and electric actuator controllers for UAM.

▲MGIT is an industrial drone specialized company that has an official partnership with DJI Enterprise, officially importing and distributing DJI Enterprise products. Based on industrial drone technology, it provides aerial surveying and diagnostic services.

Changwon City is promoting various projects to foster the drone and urban air mobility industries, which are future food industries converging advanced technologies. Many excellent companies in the drone sector are located here. Accordingly, the city is preparing to be selected as the target site for the establishment of a future aviation mobility (AAM) complex research center and a pre-feasibility study for urban air mobility (UAM) demonstration experiments to expand the UAM infrastructure that will lead the future mobility industry.

Mayor Hong said, “Changwon has strengths in the urban air mobility industry with many national research institutes such as the Korea Institute of Materials Science, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute, Korea Automotive Technology Institute, and companies with excellent capabilities in aviation parts development,” adding, “We will continuously pursue measures to foster the drone and aviation mobility industries as future food industries and establish the city as a place where urban air mobility industries and services harmonize.”