Gwangju City Selected for Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's Smart Home Appliance Project Advancement Program

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 16th that it will actively promote the project until 2023 following the final selection of the "Smart Home Appliance Industry Infrastructure Linkage Advancement Project" in the "2021 Smart Specialization Infrastructure Construction Project" contest hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The Korea Electronics Technology Institute is the lead organization, and participating organizations include Gwangju Technopark, Korea Mold Industry Promotion Association, and Air Industry Promotion Association, conducting a project to establish a full-cycle support system for small and medium-sized enterprises related to smart home appliances.

Gwangju City is promoting support policies aimed at fostering strong small and medium enterprises to strengthen the technological development capabilities of SMEs and secure market dominance, in line with the recent trend of increasing demand for convenience and functionality-centered small and medium-sized home appliances due to the rise in single-person households and aging population.

The main contents include ▲ expansion of equipment for new equipment construction and improvement of existing equipment for smart home appliance testing and evaluation ▲ platform construction for mutual linkage among innovation institutions ▲ technical support such as technical guidance, prototype production, testing and certification support ▲ training of specialized personnel to nurture experts related to smart home appliance equipment.

To respond to changes in product and technology trends in the smart home appliance industry, existing outdated equipment within innovation institutions will be improved and newly constructed to suit smart home appliance product development, performance testing, prototype production, reliability testing, and electromagnetic compatibility.

In addition, the Korea Electronics Technology Institute will be established as a smart home appliance convergence platform, unified into a single window to provide integrated support to companies by linking infrastructure and specialized technical capabilities built among innovation institutions.

With the expanded equipment and the unified network among innovation institutions, full-cycle technical support from ‘development → prototype production → test analysis and product improvement → trial mold → commercialization’ of innovative products related to smart home appliances will strengthen product competitiveness, contribute to increasing corporate sales, and expand export channels.

Furthermore, to secure expertise and improve efficiency in technical support using equipment, specialized training on product development, testing and evaluation, and performance verification using newly expanded equipment will be promoted for equipment operation personnel within innovation institutions.

The city expects that this project, which improves the existing infrastructure of four innovation institutions for fostering the smart home appliance industry and establishes an organic network, will strengthen the competitiveness of home appliance industry companies in Gwangju and create jobs.

Son Kyung-jong, Director of the Artificial Intelligence Industry Bureau of the city, said, “We will strive to secure domestic industrial competitiveness in the smart home appliance sector, which is a key local industry,” adding, “By building equipment and supporting companies for smart home appliances, we will enable medium and small enterprises to pioneer new markets and lay the foundation for the advancement of the smart home appliance industry.”

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