Sancheong Herbal Medicine Industry Special Zone, On-site Visit by Ministry of SMEs and Startups Officials

Held a meeting to hear major companies' difficulties
Herbal Special Zone selected as an excellent zone 4 times since 2009

Lee Jae-geun, the governor of Sancheong County, is having a cordial conversation with an official from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] Officials from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups visited the Gyeongnam Sancheong Herbal Medicine Industry Special Zone on the 17th and held an on-site meeting with major companies.

This visit was arranged to check the progress of the special zone demonstration project and to hear opinions from the field.

The delegation included Kim Seong-seop, Regional Enterprise Policy Officer of the SME Policy Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Kim Hang-jin, Regional Special Zone Industrial Officer, and Seong Gi-hyeon, Head of Regional Innovation Division at the Gyeongnam Regional Small and Medium Venture Business Administration.

They visited Donguibogam Village, the host site of the 2013 World Traditional Medicine Expo, to check the current status and also visited major companies within the special zone to listen to their difficulties.

The meeting was attended by the Gyeongnam Oriental Anti-Aging Research Institute (Director Lee Hyang-rae), Sancheong County Sericulture Agricultural Cooperative (Representative Kang Yong-su), Chamdeul-ae Bio Food Cooperative (Representative Hwa Kyung-pan), Hyosung Food (Representative Kang Ki-hong), and Donguibogamtang.

At the meeting with company representatives, Officer Kim said, “We will carefully listen to the voices from the field and identify the difficulties on the path forward for the Sancheong Herbal Medicine Special Zone. We will work together to consider improvements and solutions to implement policies that companies desire.”

The Sancheong Herbal Medicine Special Zone was selected in May as part of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ ‘City/County/District Affiliated Industry Development Project’ contest. It covers an area of 689,897㎡ across five regions including 87 Maechon-ri, Geumseo-myeon, and promotes six specialized projects such as traditional herbal tourism, herbal industry support projects, oriental medical welfare centers, and herbal medicine valleys.

This project was prepared to link and foster the ‘Herbal Medicine Special Zone,’ a regional specialized development zone of Sancheong County, with affiliated industries within the region to revitalize the area.

Sancheong County and the project’s lead institution, the Gyeongnam Oriental Anti-Aging Research Institute, will support the development of new herbal medicine products through convergence and fusion of anti-aging technologies in connection with the Sancheong Herbal Medicine Industry Special Zone.

The Gyeongnam Oriental Anti-Aging Research Institute within the Sancheong Herbal Medicine Special Zone is also scheduled to establish the ‘Medicinal Crop Industrialization Support Center’ around 2023.

To maximize the synergistic effect with the Herbal Medicine Special Zone, Sancheong County has been investing 1.92 billion KRW over three years from 2019 to 2021 to promote the cultivation infrastructure project, which forms the foundation of the herbal medicine industry.

Lee Jae-geun, Mayor of Sancheong County, said, “The anti-aging industry based on herbal medicine is a future growth industry that will form the foundation of ‘K-Bio.’ We will strive to establish a foundation for the Sancheong anti-aging industry, which is growing based on the herbal medicines of Jirisan, to advance globally.”

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