Nowon-gu Accelerates Development of 'Bio Complex' to Prepare for the Next 100 Years

On the 30th at 2 PM, the 'Seoul Nowon Biomedical Cluster Resident Forum' was held in the district office auditorium... Oh Seung-rok, Nowon District Mayor, served as moderator; Jin Kyung-eun, Director of Nowon Urban Planning Bureau, gave the keynote presentation; four panelists presented and discussed, followed by a Q&A session... Nowon, dreaming of a self-sufficient city through job creation, accelerates the development of the Biomedical Cluster

Aerial View of Seoul Nowon Biomedical Cluster

Nowon-gu, Seoul (District Mayor Oh Seung-rok) announced that it will hold the ‘Seoul Nowon Biomedical Cluster Resident Forum’ on the 30th from 2 p.m. at the small auditorium on the 6th floor of the district office.

The ‘Seoul Nowon Biomedical Cluster’ development project is a plan to create a bio-medical complex centered around hospitals on approximately 250,000㎡ of land, including the Changdong Vehicle Depot and Dobong Driver’s License Test Site, the last large-scale development sites remaining in Seoul. Since the 7th local government term, the district has been promoting this as a core priority project to transform Nowon into a vibrant self-sufficient city through the creation of quality jobs.

This forum was organized to share the current status and progress of the biomedical cluster project around the Changdong Vehicle Depot area and to seek ways to expedite the project and promote its development.

District Mayor Oh Seung-rok will serve as the chairperson, and the event will proceed for two hours with about 200 attendees, including presentations by speakers, discussions by panelists, and a Q&A session.

First, Jin Kyung-eun, Director of the Nowon-gu Urban Planning Bureau, who is in charge of the presentation, will explain that with the upcoming opening of the GTX-C line and rapid reconstruction, Nowon will improve living conditions for workers and become a domestic bio-industry hub by leveraging strengths in five areas: transportation, education, housing, natural environment, and culture. She will also emphasize the district’s unique advantage of attracting research-oriented hospitals in the metropolitan area and present proposals that the district needs to address to achieve this.

First, the relocation of the Dobong Driver’s License Test Site to Yangju City. In December 2021, Seoul City, Nowon-gu, and Uijeongbu City signed a co-growth and mutual development agreement and agreed on the relocation of the Dobong Test Site. However, after the inauguration of a new mayor in Uijeongbu last year, opposition was expressed, effectively nullifying the plan. Since August, the district has been making efforts to relocate the test site, starting with meetings between the Nowon-gu mayor and the Yangju mayor.

Second, measures to attract companies and hospitals. Through incentives such as low-cost land supply and tax benefits, the ‘Magok Industrial Complex’ and ‘Songdo Bio Cluster’ successfully attracted large corporations and created many jobs. The district plans to identify corporate needs through ongoing meetings and review specific benefits through a feasibility study next year.

Third, consistent plan implementation. Magok and Songdo set clear development goals and continuously pursued them, resulting in successful complex development. Accordingly, the district plans to continue its efforts and considerations for the bio cluster development without wavering, including the current issue of relocating the Dobong Driver’s License Test Site.

Following this, Lee Seung-gyu, Vice Chairman of the Korea Bio Association, who will moderate the discussion, is expected to suggest the overall trends of the domestic and international bio industry and successful promotion strategies for the Seoul Nowon cluster under the theme ‘Activation Plan for Changdong-Sanggye New Economic Zone.’ Kim Hyun-woo, Director of the Seoul Bio Hub Project Group, will propose the current operation status of Seoul Bio Hub and ways to link it with the Nowon area.

Additionally, Jogeum Jun, Director of the Open Laboratory Construction Project at Korea University Guro Hospital, will analyze Nowon-gu’s advantages based on his experience with linkage projects between G-Valley (Seoul Digital Industrial Complex) and Korea University Guro Hospital as a research-oriented hospital physician. Hwang Dong-hoon, Strategic Planning Director of Wonju Medical Device Techno Valley, will discuss the success case of the bio cluster in Wonju.

Overview of Changdong Vehicle Depot

Seoul City announced plans to establish an innovation growth industry hub in the Sanggye area in the 2017 ‘Changdong-Sanggye Urban Regeneration Activation Plan’ to promote the creation of a new economic center in the northeastern metropolitan area and balanced regional development. In 2020, it conducted the ‘S-BMC Development and Attraction Plan Study.’ In 2021, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon personally visited the site and announced plans to create a biomedical cluster anchored by Seoul National University Hospital.

The district has completed a blueprint to attract a bio-industrial complex where research-oriented hospitals, bio companies, and research institutes are organically linked to create numerous quality jobs, along with a complex commercial district including shopping malls and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, and Exhibitions) facilities.

Nowon-gu Mayor Oh Seung-rok said, “Through this forum, we aim to diagnose the progress and issues so far and listen to diverse opinions from bio field experts and local residents. We will do our best to ensure that Nowon can leap forward as a future city through the successful establishment of the biomedical cluster.”