From Population Recovery to Urban Reinvention... Embracing the Future
Rediscovering Gumi, a City Brand Shining with People, Industry, and Culture
In 2024, Gumi City devoted itself wholeheartedly to innovation to lay the foundation for the "Next 50 Years of Gumi."
With "population response" as the top priority, the city secured essential medical infrastructure, expanded employment opportunities for women, and established a foundation for young people to settle in the region, making population recovery the core value of its administration.
Despite challenging conditions, Gumi succeeded in attracting the "Opportunity Development Special Zone" and investments approaching 4 trillion KRW. Its flagship festivals, such as the "Ramen Festival," have become new models of win-win cooperation encompassing culture and economy, elevating the Gumi brand (Romantic City Gumi). Additionally, the city laid the groundwork for innovative value creation for an agricultural transformation, including the province's first "wheat milling facility" completion, and made every effort to expand the metropolitan living area with projects like the "Gumi-Gunwi Expressway preliminary feasibility study selection."
These innovative achievements are expected to serve as a valuable foundation for Gumi City to solidify its future 50-year base and complete the re-creation of Gumi as a sustainable residential city.
▲ A "Talent-Centered City" that nurtures and grows talent
In 2024, Gumi City prioritized population response and concentrated all administrative efforts on establishing a system where women, youth, and children can grow, find employment, and settle locally.
By establishing the province's first "Low Birthrate Countermeasure TF Team" (February) and creating the "Future Education and Care Bureau" (July) through a bold organizational restructuring, the city accelerated population response policies. As a result, the population decline, which averaged 372 people per month in 2022, was significantly reduced to 64 people as of November 2024.
First, to improve childcare and care environments, the city focused on expanding essential medical infrastructure and enhancing care environments, as well as preventing women's career interruptions by establishing a complete care system. This included the opening of the "Gumi+ Neonatal Intensive Care Center" (March), the province's largest care culture complex space "Saemaeul 24-Hour Village Care Center" (November) with expansion of 24-hour village care centers by region, operation of the "K-Mom Taxi" exclusively for pregnant women (October), and the opening of the "Job Convenience Store" (September).
Alongside this, the city actively fostered talent responsible for the region's future. Leveraging the attraction of the "Education Development Special Zone," it strengthened public education competitiveness to establish a foundation for local talent retention. The long-awaited establishment of a new high school in the Gangdong area was confirmed, and projects such as the "School Complex Facility Project (Gumi Elementary, Dosong Middle)" were promoted. Expansion of scholarship programs focused on local talent widened the path for local students to find employment in regional companies and settle locally. For example, 11 graduates from Gumi Electronics Technical High School were accepted at LIG Nex1's Gumi plant, demonstrating the success of nurturing talent based on the local industrial foundation.
Youth and female populations are considered indicators of a sustainable city.
Gumi City supports youth settlement and residence stability through programs like the "Youth Monthly Rent Support Project" and by establishing youth cultural spaces such as the "Youth Imagination Maru" in Kumo Market (April), helping young people realize their dreams and live stably in Gumi.
Women-friendly policies are also notable. To prevent career interruptions due to childcare and assist women's return to social activities, the city opened the nation's first "Job Convenience Store" (September), which has been popular with over 400 users in just three months.
The city plans to further focus on developing policies to ensure stable settlement for youth and women.
▲ A "Growth Industry City" leaping toward innovative growth
Following the semiconductor specialized complex and defense innovation cluster, Gumi City continued to inject a breeze of innovation into economic territory expansion by attracting the government's key local era project, the "Opportunity Development Special Zone" (June).
The city swiftly established a cooperative system with local companies and related institutions, persistently visited central government ministries, and persuaded them of the necessity, successfully attracting 570,000 pyeong (approximately 1.88 million square meters) for the Opportunity Development Special Zone. Through this, Gumi secured a favorable position for attracting large-scale investments in semiconductor, defense, and secondary battery sectors by receiving tax and financial support, regulatory exemptions, and residential environment improvements as a package.
Thanks to these achievements, Gumi attracted investments worth 3.861 trillion KRW from 275 projects and created 1,756 jobs this year, generating quality employment.
As the first fruit of the only semiconductor specialized complex designated outside the metropolitan area, the next-generation power semiconductor company AProSemicon relocated its headquarters to Gumi and attracted 72 billion KRW in investment. The success of the "SK Siltron Ultra-Pure Water Domestic Production Demonstration Plant Project," which paved the way for domestic companies to enter the ultra-pure water market previously led by the U.S. and Japan, is expected to further solidify Gumi's semiconductor industry foundation.
Gumi's K-Defense industry is also progressing smoothly.
Investment MOUs were signed with LIG Nex1 (May, 200 billion KRW) and four Hanwha Systems partner companies (July, 8.5 billion KRW), and a defense industry promotion agreement was signed with the North Alabama International Trade Association in the U.S. (October), concretizing the vision of Gumi as the capital of Korea's new defense industry.
The ecosystem for secondary batteries, covering materials, parts, equipment, and reuse, has become even stronger.
Construction began on the "BaaS Test Demonstration Center" (27.2 billion KRW) and the "Secondary Battery Promotion Hub Center" (30.9 billion KRW), and the Korea Testing & Research Institute (KTR) established its Daegu-Gyeongbuk headquarters, equipping the city with innovative infrastructure for secondary batteries.
The city also took the first step toward building an AI advanced digital cluster.
Based on abundant power and a safe natural environment, on the 13th, Gumi signed an investment agreement with Gumi High-Tech Energy to promote the construction of Korea's first advanced complex facility combining a data center and a hydrogen fuel cell power plant.
Beyond these large-scale investments, the city prioritized supporting small business owners and self-employed individuals by giving priority to local companies in public contracts and expanding support for the New Hope Special Guarantee and secondary interest subsidies, striving to revive the local economy.
▲ A "Romantic Sensibility City" harmonized with pauses, rhythms, and coexistence
Gumi City is transforming from a typical manufacturing-centered city into a "fun" city.
The third annual "Gumi Ramen Festival" (November 1?3) combined four success factors: the unique content of "ramen," the rarity of tasting and purchasing freshly fried ramen only in Gumi, its location in downtown Gumi Station, and the provision of premium, unique dishes that passed strict screening. As a result, participation exploded by 113% from 80,000 in 2023 to 170,000, with 48% of participants coming from outside the region, establishing it as a representative national festival.
Moreover, nearly 600,000 people attended Gumi's major festivals this year, including the "Gumi Food Festival" (October 5?6) and the "Romantic Night Market" (April 26?June 22, every Friday and Saturday, 20 times).
The win-win model created by these festivals adds new value to the city.
With many local representative companies and merchants participating, companies benefit from marketing effects, nearby commercial districts see increased sales, and the city's brand value rises. In November's city brand reputation survey, Gumi ranked first nationwide, achieving a triple-win result.
Additionally, Gumi is accelerating the construction of lifestyle-oriented tourism, cultural, and sports infrastructure that can return everyday happiness to its citizens.
"Jisan Saetgang Ecological Park" was selected as a model city forest for 2024 by the Korea Forest Service. The opening of the "Nakdong River Bisan Ferry Road" (February), expansion of barefoot trails throughout the city, and the renovation of Daon Forest (turning it into a hydrangea attraction) have been well received by citizens as expanded urban healing spaces.
▲ Co-growth of rural and urban areas, a major transformation into a livable countryside
This year, the city laid a turning point for increasing farm income and transitioning to a high-tech agricultural city through rural modernization, scaling, and technological innovation.
First, Gumi signed a business agreement (May) with Gyeongbuk Province and the Korea Food Tech Council to build a National Food Tech Cluster, planning to integrate smart manufacturing technology from the Gumi National Industrial Complex to promote the cluster's establishment.
Gumi has 50 years of accumulated manufacturing know-how and hosts many food companies such as Nongshim (ramen) and Olgot (frozen gimbap). Its accessibility to the new airport also makes it an optimal location for the National Food Tech Cluster.
The city signed a "Rural Agreement" with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (April) to receive 41.2 billion KRW in project funds by 2028, implementing projects such as rural hub revitalization, basic living base creation, and regional activation using idle rural facilities.
Also, the province's first "wheat milling facility" was completed, and a wheat industry valley special zone was created. Collaborating with local bakeries, efforts are underway to develop bread using domestic wheat, establishing a corporate model covering the entire production-processing-distribution process and preparing to become the center of domestic wheat cultivation by creating a large-scale wheat production complex.
▲ Connecting roads and expanding the city
Last month, with the opening of the "Daegyeong Line," the province's first metropolitan railroad, Gumi entered a new turning point in the new transportation network era. After 54 years since the opening of the Gyeongbu Expressway, the "Gumi-Gunwi Expressway" running east-west and the "Seodaegu-Uiseong New Airport Railroad" are undergoing preliminary feasibility studies, transforming Gumi into a transportation hub with excellent connectivity.
The city is also continuously promoting major projects such as the construction of the Gimcheon-Gumi-New Airport east-west transversal railroad, the establishment of Donggumi Station, and KTX-Eum Gumi Station stops. By linking these with national projects like the Opportunity Development Special Zone and the Semiconductor Specialized Complex, Gumi is expected to maximize synergy as a hinterland city for the Daegu-Gyeongbuk New Airport by enhancing competitiveness through logistics cost reduction for industrial complex resident companies.
▲ Organizational innovation and professionalism driving changes felt by citizens
This year, Gumi City accelerated organizational reform to bring about changes felt by citizens and leap toward the next 50 years.
Since Mayor Kim Jang-ho's inauguration, the "Good Morning Wednesday Special Lecture," held 119 times to date, has firmly rooted a culture of learning among public officials. Through the "GGXP (Overseas Training Program)," officials who learned advanced overseas cases have applied benchmarking examples to their work, creating clear differences. The success of the Romantic Night Market and Ramen Festival was partly due to the professionalism of officials who studied and deliberated by benchmarking night markets in Thailand and Taiwan and Japan.
Moreover, for the first time in the province, four veteran team leaders with over 20 years of experience were assigned to the front lines to establish a "One-Stop Civil Complaints Team" (July). As a result, complex civil complaints that had remained unresolved are being solved one by one, increasing citizen satisfaction. Recently, they resolved a two-year-long complaint from residents of an apartment in Sandong-eup in just two months, demonstrating their professionalism and deep understanding of the field.
This organizational innovation and enhancement of professional capabilities are objectively reflected in evaluations. In 2024, Gumi received a total of 57 awards from external organizations, including the Presidential Citation, central government ministries, and Gyeongbuk Province, recognizing its excellent capabilities. This represents a 30% increase (13 cases) compared to 44 awards in 2023.
Despite difficult financial conditions with limited central government funds, Gumi secured 900.1 billion KRW in national subsidies. As a result of these external resource acquisition efforts, the city formulated its largest-ever budget of 2.1455 trillion KRW, laying the foundation for a leap toward the next 50 years and ensuring the smooth progress of current projects amid the government's sound fiscal policy and sluggish national tax revenue.
Mayor Kim Jang-ho said, "Despite difficult internal and external conditions, thanks to the support and encouragement of our citizens, we were able to achieve many accomplishments this year. Going forward, Gumi will do its best to take another step forward based on the innovation achievements so far, and I ask for your continued generous support."
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