'K-Bio Lab Hub' Incheon Attraction Support... Yeonsu-gu Delivers 115,000 Signatures

Gonamseok, head of Yeonsu District Office (center front row), is taking a commemorative photo with employees after collecting residents' signature sheets for attracting the 'K-Bio Lab Hub' to Incheon.
[Photo by Yeonsu-gu, Incheon]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, announced on the 11th that it has delivered a petition signed by approximately 115,000 Yeonsu-gu residents expressing their desire for Incheon to host the 'K-Bio Lab Hub' to the city.

This project, aimed at nurturing national representative bio startup companies, is currently accepting candidate site applications until the 14th by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and Incheon has already submitted a letter of intent to host.

To support the city, Yeonsu-gu conducted a two-week signature campaign until the 8th at apartments, subway stations, and other locations, along with an SNS cheer relay challenge, and certification photo challenges involving all Yeonsu-gu office staff, local organizations, and commercial district associations.

Starting with Yeonsu-gu Mayor Go Nam-seok encouraging residents to sign at signature booths installed at three subway stations in Songdo International City on the 28th of last month, all 66 apartment resident representative meetings in the Songdo area submitted letters of support for hosting. In a short period, over 115,000 signatures were collected, confirming enthusiasm for hosting beyond expectations.

Additionally, the SNS cheer relay challenge by related figures began with the mayor and continued with the CEO of Celltrion, the head of the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority, an executive director of Samsung Biologics, and presidents of Ghent University, the University of Utah, and the State University of New York. Local organizations and commercial district associations also recorded a total of 423 certification photo challenges wishing for the hosting.

The district has a 'local resident enthusiasm' category in the candidate site evaluation criteria and requested active participation from residents in a short period to demonstrate the passionate desire of Yeonsu-gu residents for hosting.

Mayor Go Nam-seok said, "We are grateful for the incredible support from residents for hosting the K-Bio Lab Hub in Songdo International City. The support activities effectively ended on the 8th, and we have submitted the residents' petition and other materials to Incheon City. We sincerely hope that the passionate desire of Yeonsu-gu residents will surely lead to the successful hosting of the K-Bio Lab Hub."

The 'K-Bio Lab Hub' is a project benchmarking 'LabCentral,' a bio startup support institution in Boston, USA, which produced the famous pharmaceutical company Moderna, aiming to build a platform where everything from new drug development to prototype production is possible in one space.

Incheon is home to Samsung Biologics and Celltrion, leading the domestic bio industry, located in Songdo, and it is expected that through the establishment of the K-Bio Lab Hub, second and third national representative-level regional bio companies will emerge.

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