Daejeon City Invests 360 Billion KRW in Local Universities and Talent Development

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City is promoting a cooperative project for mutual development between the region and universities and for nurturing talent. More than 360 billion KRW is expected to be invested in the cooperative project by 2025.

On the 10th, according to the city, Heo Tae-jung, Mayor of Daejeon, Seol Dong-ho, Superintendent of Daejeon Metropolitan Office of Education, and 19 university presidents from the region attended the ‘Daejeon City Local Universities and Regional Balanced Talent Nurturing Support Council’ at Daejeon City Hall the day before to discuss the direction of the cooperative project.

At the council, Mayor Heo and others deliberated and approved the ‘2nd Basic Plan for Local Universities and Regional Balanced Talent Nurturing Support (2021?2025)’ to be promoted through cooperation among the city, universities, and the region.

The basic plan focuses on three major policy areas: university innovation, regional innovation, and collaboration. It includes 11 tasks (37 detailed tasks) aimed at specialization in the science and technology new industry sector, establishment of industry-academia-research-government cooperation systems, creation of youth activity spaces, and improvement of regional living conditions. These will be continuously promoted over the next five years starting next year.

Among them, university innovation centers on ▲supporting activities to attract international students ▲operating the regional leading university nurturing project ▲establishing the Daejeon Startup Park ▲creating campus innovation parks.

Regional innovation is based on ▲nurturing Daejeon-type CO-OP youth new leaders ▲operating the Daejeon Job Center ▲supporting the Leading University for Industry-Academia Cooperation (LINC) nurturing project ▲supporting job creation tailored to regional projects.

Key projects in the collaboration area include ▲Youth Employment Hope Card project ▲operation of Youth House ▲promotion of youth community activation ▲operation of the Daejeon Youth Policy Network.

The city plans to invest a total of 368.2 billion KRW in these projects, including 74.3 billion KRW in national funds, 263.8 billion KRW in city funds, and 30.1 billion KRW in private capital.

At the council, discussions were also held regarding the mandatory hiring of local talent by regional public institutions following the designation of innovation cities, focusing on nurturing customized professional personnel required by companies in local universities and establishing curricula reflecting the characteristics of each public institution.

Mayor Heo said, "In the post-COVID-19 era, continuous discovery and support of cooperative projects among the region, universities, and companies are necessary for mutual development. Especially, I ask for the active cooperation of universities so that the effects of the innovation city designation can be maximized in the region."

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