Changwon City Leads 2040 Hydrogen Policy Vision: "Hydrogen-Centered New Changwon"

Vision of Creating 1,000 Jobs and Generating 500 Billion KRW Annual Economic Impact in the Hydrogen Industry

Changwon City, Gyeongnam, held the '2040 Hydrogen Policy Vision Proclamation Ceremony' on the 28th. (Photo by Changwon City)

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Hwang Choi Hyun-joo] Changwon City, Gyeongnam Province, announced on the 28th that it held the ‘2040 Hydrogen Policy Vision Declaration Ceremony.’ Through this, the city reaffirmed its determination to complete ‘Changwon, the Special Hydrogen Industry City’ by 2040, with employment of about 42,000 people and an annual scale of 7.2 trillion KRW.

According to the city, since November 2018 when Mayor Heo Seong-mu of Changwon declared ‘Changwon, the Special Hydrogen Industry City,’ it has achieved the largest-scale hydrogen vehicle distribution among basic local governments, the country’s first official hydrogen city bus route operation, and the establishment of urban package-type charging stations.

Along with the achievements in promoting the hydrogen industry, and linking with the detailed plans related to the hydrogen economy recently announced by the government, the city established the policy vision ‘2040 Hydrogen-Centered New Changwon,’ which presents a newly transformed Changwon based on hydrogen, targeting the year 2040.

The 2040 Changwon City Hydrogen Policy Vision consists of 32 projects across 5 sectors. It aims to establish industrial competitiveness throughout the entire hydrogen cycle, including production and storage, and to secure energy self-sufficiency and future growth engines based on hydrogen through the supply and use of hydrogen energy in daily life.

Additionally, by 2025, the city plans to distribute 7,560 hydrogen vehicles and build 17 charging stations, achieve stable hydrogen supply through daily production of 20 tons of hydrogen and hydrogen pipelines, develop and demonstrate core parts for hydrogen mobility, create a green smart industrial complex using 230MW-scale fuel cell power generation, and establish a hydrogen theme park for hydrogen promotion and experience, among other key hydrogen industry development plans.

Furthermore, the city plans to attract key government-led hydrogen projects such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s ‘Hydrogen Pilot City’ and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s ‘Hydrogen Specialized Industrial Complex’ to foster a hydrogen industry ecosystem.

In particular, the scale of job creation, including workers in hydrogen-related industries, is expected to gradually increase from 400 in 2020 to 1,000 in 2022, 5,000 in 2025, and by 2040, 42,000 jobs will be created, which is 10% of the government’s hydrogen industry employment creation and one-third of the current workforce in the Changwon National Industrial Complex.

Mayor Heo emphasized, “Starting from the near future, we will do our best to transform Changwon into a new hydrogen-centered city where hydrogen-related companies grow due to the economic effects derived from the hydrogen industry, and new jobs that citizens can feel are created.”

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