Gyeongnam Province Launches Defense Industry Development with 'DDCo' Project Start

Gyeongsangnam-do Provincial Government Building Exterior View

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kang Woo-kwon] Gyeongsangnam-do announced on the 11th that it held the '1st Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Industry Cluster Council' to revitalize the Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Industry Cluster Project and discuss ways to establish a defense industry ecosystem.

The council was held with the participation of 30 members from 27 organizations, including Park Jong-won, Vice Governor for Economic Affairs of the province and co-chairman, and Kim Seong-jun, Director of the Defense Industry Promotion Bureau of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration.

This council, conducted to discover and promote joint cooperation tasks for localization of defense parts and fostering defense companies, agreed to make the Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Industry Cluster Project, selected through a public contest in April, a model for innovative growth in the defense sector. The agenda included reviewing the execution plan and the discovery and selection of parts for localization.

The execution plan for the Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Industry Cluster envisions building an ecosystem for parts localization through qualitative growth and innovation in the defense industry. It will pursue 10 detailed execution tasks across four areas: ▲establishing a foundation for defense innovation ▲localization of defense parts ▲support for commercialization of small and medium venture businesses ▲support for startups and job creation.

Establishing a foundation for defense innovation includes the construction of the Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Industry Promotion Center (with a total floor area of 8,000㎡) and the establishment of testing and evaluation equipment.

For localization of defense parts, support will be provided for R&D of small and medium venture defense companies, and university-led parts localization laboratories will be established to foster defense specialists and support participation in corporate R&D projects, thereby strengthening the capabilities of defense companies.

To support commercialization of small and medium venture businesses, initiatives such as support for testing and evaluation fees, performance improvement, and upgrading will be promoted. For startup support of defense companies, full-cycle incubation from item discovery to commercialization will be provided.

New defense company support will promote advanced core technologies and parts localization of developed countries through the ‘Advanced Defense Spin-Up (SPIN-UP)’ led by the private sector combining defense technology and the innovative defense company support ‘DDCO Project.’

DDCO (Dynamic Defense Cooperation) means ‘to stand up’ in Korean and aims to support innovative companies by opening up the existing closed defense support system.

Meanwhile, the Gyeongnam Changwon Defense Industry Cluster Project will invest 45 billion KRW over five years until 2024.

By discovering parts localization and advanced requirements, activating spin-on and spin-off between civilian and defense technologies, and establishing a defense cooperation system that conducts proactive development and demonstration research of defense parts, it is expected to establish itself as a new innovative growth model for local small and medium venture defense companies.

SPIN-ON refers to the phenomenon where civilian technology is reused in military technology, and SPIN-OFF refers to the phenomenon where military technology is reused in civilian technology.

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