Secured 300 Million KRW in National Funding for the 'Digital Innovation Company Global Growth Voucher Support Project'
Mayor Lee Gang-deok: "Accelerating the Discovery of Policies to Foster Global Digital Companies Leading South Korea"
Pohang City, together with Gyeongbuk Province, has been finally selected for the ‘Digital Innovation Enterprise Global Growth Voucher Support Project’ led by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Pohang Mayor Lee Kang-deok held a meeting at City Hall last February, inviting company officials who won the Best Innovation Award at CES 2024. (From left: Kim Ji-sung, CEO of Cream; Choi Bong-hyuk, Planning Director of Nature Glutec; Park Myung-jin, Head of Graphene Square Pohang Research Center; Lee Kang-deok, Mayor of Pohang; Noh Sang-chul, CEO of AN Poly; Jung Ah-yeon, CEO of Flow Studio; Seo Chung-mo, CEO of Midbar)
Through this contest, 300 million KRW of national funds have been secured this year without local government matching funds. This project will establish a growth foundation for digital companies possessing innovative products and services within the region and expand the provision of package-type demonstration references to companies wishing to enter overseas markets.
This contest reflects the common requests made by companies at the CES Innovation Award-winning companies meeting held at City Hall last February. It is a follow-up support to help local companies grow to the next level. Pohang City and Gyeongbuk Province have been preparing the project, and a total of five regions, including Gyeongbuk, were selected.
The main contents of the project include ▲ the ‘Digital Demonstration Support Voucher Program,’ which provides local governments with digital companies’ products and technologies to verify and support the reliability and excellence of products in the field ▲ the ‘Package-type Overseas Expansion Program,’ which supports commercialization of main products and entry into overseas markets in connection with the CES Pohang Pavilion project, a digital and IT exhibition.
Pohang City plans to form a consortium with POSCO Holdings, a regional anchor company, as a cooperating institution to provide abundant support programs that are insufficient when promoted only by local governments. It will also operate various investment support programs so that many digital companies in the region can receive support by linking with representative public-private cooperation systems such as the ‘POSCO Venture Platform.’
In particular, since Pohang companies won six awards last year (1 Grand Award, 5 Innovation Awards) and six awards this year (2 Grand Awards, 4 Innovation Awards) at CES, which grants the highest innovation awards and innovation awards for technologies that will change the world, the growth potential of local digital companies is infinite. The city plans to focus more on nurturing and producing innovative companies that can lead the world through active policy support.
The city, together with Gyeongbuk Province, plans to start the project immediately this year and select support targets through its own company selection process. It is expected that this contest project will serve as a catalyst for digital industry promotion policies.
Mayor Lee Kang-deok stated, “In the huge flow of the 4th Industrial Revolution, digital innovation is no longer an option but a necessity,” and added, “We will concentrate on discovering new policies that can actively support the growth and nurturing of local digital companies so that Pohang can become the world’s best digital innovation city by pouring all our capabilities.”
Since 2023, Pohang City has been continuously supporting the operation of the Pohang Pavilion at CES held in Las Vegas, USA, to help local digital companies enter overseas markets and prove their innovative technological capabilities to the world.
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