Gwangju City Awards Certificates to 15 Newly Designated Local Star Companies

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 16th that it held a certificate awarding ceremony at Gwangju Technopark for 15 newly selected local star companies.

The local star company fostering project is a program designed to systematically support companies with excellent growth potential, job creation, and community contribution to nurture them into strong small and medium-sized enterprises. Since selecting 15 companies in 2018, a total of 46 companies have been selected up to this year.

It plans to select and nurture 75 star companies over five years until 2022.

The companies newly selected this year are AM Teukjang Co., Ltd., Hyundai Hightech Co., Ltd., HDT Co., Ltd., Altec Co., Ltd., BA Energy Co., Ltd., Bestec Co., Ltd., New Material Industry Co., Ltd., DR Tech Co., Ltd., Hyundai Metal Co., Ltd., Sendori Co., Ltd., Namyang Lighting Industry Co., Ltd., World Plus Electronics Co., Ltd., Eunhye Enterprise Co., Ltd., SDM Co., Ltd., and Changuk Co., Ltd.

Star companies must meet conditions such as being a small or medium-sized enterprise with an average sales revenue of 5 billion to 40 billion KRW over the past three years, having at least 10 regular employees, an average sales growth rate of 5% or more over the past five years, an average R&D investment ratio of 1% or more relative to average sales over the past three years, and a regular employee ratio of 70% or more among all employees.

Local star company designation is maintained for three years. In the first year, companies receive support such as R&D project planning and technology development roadmap consulting. In the second and third years, customized programs including marketing and overseas market entry strategies will be provided, with total support amounting to approximately 72 million KRW.

In particular, after one year, companies become eligible to receive commercialization R&D support of up to approximately 200 million KRW through a restricted competitive public offering, and will receive ongoing consulting support to resolve technical and management difficulties through the assignment of a dedicated project manager (PM).

The 31 star companies selected up to last year have continued to grow as representative local companies, achieving an 8% sales growth rate, 121 new jobs created, and 6.4 billion KRW in commercialization sales.

Lee Kyung, head of the city’s Enterprise Development Division, said, “The local star company fostering project is one of the step-by-step support programs for the growth ladder of Gwangju city companies. We will actively support the newly selected local star companies to grow into global strong small and medium-sized enterprises and world-class companies leading the regional economy.”

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