‘Mokpo-si Industrial Map Reorganization’ Leads the Century-Long Regional Economic Plan

Focused Development of Three Major Future Strategic Industries: Renewable Energy, Seafood, and Tourism

[Mokpo=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Jeong Seunghyun] On the 9th, Mokpo City in Jeollanam-do announced that it is laying the foundation for a century-long regional economy through the reorganization of its industrial map.

The current trend in Mokpo’s economy is to establish three major future strategic industries?renewable energy industry, seafood food industry, and tourism industry?as pillars, pioneer new areas in the traditional shipbuilding industry, and strengthen the self-sustainability of small businesses.

Since its opening as a port in 1897, Mokpo has grown as a gateway for the influx of modern culture. It was so prominent in modern times that it was referred to as one of the three major ports and six major cities.

Subsequently, local companies that led industrialization supported the regional economy, maintaining Mokpo’s status as the top city in Jeollanam-do. Then, with the establishment of the Daebul Industrial Complex, shipbuilding led the regional economy. Additionally, fisheries and small businesses formed another pillar of Mokpo’s economy.

However, Mokpo’s economy shrank due to failure to respond appropriately to changes and missed opportunities. Local companies relocated to other regions, and the shipbuilding industry lacked stability due to its cyclical nature of booms and busts. The fisheries industry remained limited to auctioning and distributing raw materials, and small businesses fluctuated in tandem with the shipbuilding market.

Now, Mokpo’s economy is in urgent need of change for survival. The 7th term of the Mokpo city government has been focusing on preparing future food sources with a serious awareness of this issue.

Mayor Kim Jong-sik of Mokpo emphasized, “Local governments are no exception to being eliminated if they fail to respond quickly to changes or lead change in the era. Mokpo’s way to survive lies in industrializing its strengths and turning them into future food sources.”

The city focused on a strategy that leverages its strengths?sea, islands, and modern historical culture?as resources for a century-long plan, while linking with government policies to ensure project stability.

The three major future strategic industries?renewable energy industry, seafood food industry, and tourism industry?are all being promoted in conjunction with government policies worth around 100 billion KRW through this approach.

The renewable energy industry is centered on two pillars: eco-friendly shipbuilding and offshore wind power industry. The eco-friendly shipbuilding industry focuses on cluster formation in Namhang, including research and technology development on electric propulsion ships and eco-friendly mixed fuel technology, demonstration, establishment of research institutes, and attracting university campuses for specialized workforce training. Following last year’s selection for the project “Development of Electric Propulsion Car Ferry and Mobile Power Supply System (45 billion KRW),” this year it was selected for the project “Development and Demonstration of Eco-friendly Ship Mixed Fuel Technology” (41.5 billion KRW), marking the start of cluster formation.

The offshore wind power industry involves attracting companies that produce and assemble equipment and parts needed for the 8.2GW offshore wind power complex along the southwestern coast to the hinterland of the new port, and transporting and constructing the wind power complex through the Mokpo New Port support pier. Additionally, the city plans to build the Offshore Wind Power Industry Support Center (Convergence Platform, 31.5 billion KRW) in the Daeyang Industrial Complex to serve as the control tower for the offshore wind power complex.

Both the eco-friendly shipbuilding and offshore wind power industries are new industries responding to the climate crisis era. This is significant for Mokpo as it secures promising future food sources. Moreover, it is encouraging as these industries are expected to attract investment from large corporations.

The development of the seafood food industry aims to leap forward as the nation’s top seafood food city. Despite being the largest seafood distribution hub nationwide, Mokpo has been unable to process seafood due to poor infrastructure and has distributed raw materials to other regions.

This results in low added value from seafood. To improve this situation, the city is promoting the Seafood Food Export Complex project (108.9 billion KRW). By establishing a seafood food export complex that integrates the International Seafood Exchange, research and development facilities, frozen logistics warehouses, and processing plants, the city plans to commercialize seafood into high value-added products.

The tourism industry is laying the foundation to become a global tourism city attracting even foreign tourists through the Tourism Hub City Project (100 billion KRW), while also striving to expand stay-type tourism infrastructure through private investment attraction.

To address Mokpo tourism’s biggest weakness?the lack of tourism infrastructure?the city plans to attract a 5-star tourist hotel with convention facilities on the site of the old coal pier in Samhakdo.

Mokpo currently lacks facilities to smoothly and stably host large-scale events, limiting the growth of its tourism industry.

The expansion of tourism infrastructure in Samhakdo is seen by the city not only as utilizing Samhakdo as a future-oriented space but also as a way to revitalize the old downtown and further develop Mokpo into a stay-type tourism city.

The city is also promoting diversification of existing industries. The Western Maintenance Yard of the Korea Coast Guard, scheduled to be built by 2024 on Heosado in Mokpo New Port, is expected to serve as a catalyst for expanding the business area of shipbuilding in the southwestern region of Jeollanam-do into ship repair. The southwestern region of Jeollanam-do is dominated by equipment manufacturers (75%, about 210 companies) that receive orders from two shipbuilders, Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (large shipbuilder) and Daehan Shipbuilding (medium shipbuilder), to produce blocks and other components.

Since shipbuilding experiences ups and downs depending on the international market, diversification is necessary. In this context, the newly established Western Maintenance Yard is expected to be a boon for shipbuilding companies in the southwestern region of Jeollanam-do. The volume of outsourced services and shipbuilding equipment supplied by the Western Maintenance Yard to local shipbuilding companies is expected to reach about 50 billion KRW annually.

Small businesses are focusing on strengthening self-sustainability through improved management capabilities. Since last year, the city has been operating the “God’s Business Strategy Academy” by inviting Kim Yoo-jin, known as the “Korean-style Business God,” as an instructor. This has led to increased sales, with 97% of participants responding very satisfied and 78% reporting increased sales in a survey conducted by the city.

In addition, the city has conducted consulting for “Delicious Alone Namdo Table (single-person set meal),” a differentiated food tourism product targeting individual tourists, a travel trend in the post-COVID-19 era, as well as education for “City of Taste 9 Flavors and Specialty Product Utilization Start-up and Entrepreneurship Support Project.”

Mayor Kim said, “Mokpo is advancing with clear goals and directions, and its industrial structure is changing. We will focus administrative power on developing into a city with quality jobs and a city that tourists enjoy visiting.”

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