Gwangju City Announces Expansion Designation of Investment Promotion District in Asia Culture Centered City

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 13th that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has expanded and announced the designation of the Asia Culture Hub City Investment Promotion Districts in the CGI Center Zone and the National Asia Culture Center Zone (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Announcement No. 2020-0109).

The Asia Culture Hub City Investment Promotion Districts consist of three areas: Gwangju CGI Center Zone, National Asia Culture Center Zone, and KDB Life Building. Established under the Special Act on the Creation of Asia Culture Hub City in 2010, these districts were designated to attract investment companies that will lead the development of cultural industries and the creation of cultural industry clusters, providing various tax reductions, facility support, and diverse subsidies.

Since the initial designation, Gwangju City has been promoting the expansion of the zones to respond to environmental changes and actively attract private investment. With this additional designation, the National Asia Culture Center Zone will expand sevenfold, and the CGI Zone will double in size.

In particular, the Songha-dong CGI Zone in Nam-gu has been pre-designated as an investment promotion district ahead of the opening of the Gwangju Realistic Content Cube (GCC) scheduled for next year, and it is expected to establish itself as the mecca for the production of Asia's largest 4D, UHD, AR, and hologram-related content.

The National Asia Culture Center Zone has additionally designated major cultural industry facilities such as the Video Complex Culture Hall, Content Startup Incubation Center, Music Industry Promotion Center, Media Art Creative City Platform (AMT Center), Seonam-dong Printing Street, Yangnim-dong, Sajik-dong, and Dongmyeong-dong. This will actively promote the attraction of companies in the cultural and tourism industry sectors linked with the Culture Center, which is expected to revitalize the Culture Center.

Additionally, a Comprehensive Support Center for Companies has been opened at Jeonil Building 245 to provide comprehensive support according to the growth stages of resident companies in each investment promotion district zone and to promote the attraction of promising companies and private investment within the expanded investment promotion districts.

If an investment of 500 million KRW or more in the cultural industry, or 3 billion KRW or more in the tourism industry, youth training facilities, etc., is made in the investment promotion district, corporate tax and income tax can be reduced for five years under the Restriction of Special Taxation Act (100% for the first three years and 50% for the following two years), with acquisition tax exemption and property tax reduction for up to 15 years. Various support benefits such as subsidies for location, relocation, facility investment, employment, and training are also provided.

Infrastructure support is also diverse. For cultural industry resident companies, 3D production software licenses and Internet Data Center (IDC) services are provided free of charge.

The currently supported Gwangju CGI Center is equipped with an indoor comprehensive filming studio, post-production video studio, 4K·S3D cameras, render farm, and pre-visualization system.

Kim Jun-young, Director of the Cultural Tourism and Sports Office of the city, said, “Through the expansion of the investment promotion districts and the opening of the Comprehensive Support Center for Companies (Gwangju Information and Culture Industry Promotion Agency) in Jeonil Building, we expect to strengthen the attraction of promising companies and support for resident companies.” He added, “We will revitalize the nation’s only cultural industry investment promotion district and foster a culture-centered city where jobs are created.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.