Imsil En Cheese Dairy Special Zone Selected as 'Excellent Zone' in Regional Special Zone Evaluation

[Imsil=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Nosik] The Imsil N Cheese Dairy Special Zone in Jeonbuk has achieved the great feat of being selected as an excellent special zone nationwide.

The county announced on the 8th that the Imsil N Cheese Dairy Special Zone was selected as an excellent special zone ranked second nationwide in the ‘2021 Regional Special Zone Operation Performance Evaluation’ conducted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, receiving the Prime Minister’s Commendation and a reward of 150 million KRW.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups conducted an in-depth overall operational performance evaluation including document review, on-site evaluation, and presentation evaluation targeting 195 regional special zones nationwide, finally selecting nine special zones including the best, excellent, and encouragement categories.

This year’s evaluation is particularly meaningful as it secured greater fairness than previous evaluations by selecting 50 members of the public evaluation group nationwide to directly participate in the evaluation.

Designated in 2016, the Imsil N Cheese Dairy Special Zone covers an area of 765,000㎡ and operates related institutions and dairy product companies centered around the Imsil Cheese Theme Park, including the Imsil Cheese & Food Research Institute and the Imsil N Cheese Cluster. Last year, it achieved results including attracting 19 companies, creating 190 jobs, and generating sales of 32.4 billion KRW.

Additionally, under the leadership of the Imsil Cheese & Food Research Institute, research and development were promoted, resulting in the development of nine new products, registration of seven patents, and ten trademark registrations, achieving product development outcomes.

The ‘Imsil N Cheese Festival’ was designated as a cultural tourism festival from 2020 to 2022 and was selected as the best festival in Jeollabuk-do for four consecutive years.

The cheese joint brand ‘Imsil N Cheese’ has strengthened its status as the mecca of Korean cheese, winning the Korea Representative Brand Award for eight consecutive years.

Productivity was improved through the establishment of processing infrastructure such as the Imsil N Smoked Cheese manufacturing facility and cheese-utilizing food processing factory. The expansion and operation of the Imsil N Cheese Cafe, rest area sales outlets, and experience centers greatly contributed to revitalizing the local economy through cheese industry promotion and distribution sales.

In particular, despite the COVID-19 crisis last year, active efforts to overcome the crisis were highly evaluated, including direct transaction promotion activities such as the urban-rural exchange win-win market to secure sales channels for local dairy companies and strategies to revitalize online mall operations in line with non-face-to-face consumption patterns.

County Governor Shim Min said, “Imsil N Cheese, the county’s representative specialized resource, has once again been recognized nationwide. We will continue to strive so that the Imsil N Cheese Dairy Special Zone produces visible results that lead the region’s future development and grows sustainably to drive the local economy.”

Imsil=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Park Nosik sd2481@asiae.co.kr

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