Gwangyang City Achieves Remarkable Investment Attraction of 2.2024 Trillion Won This Year

Published 24 Dec.2021 15:43(KST)

Advancing Regional Industrial Structure and Creating Quality Jobs through Attraction of Excellent Companies

Gwangyang City Achieves Remarkable Investment Attraction of 2.2024 Trillion Won This Year

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seon-sik] Gwangyang City, Jeollanam-do announced that it achieved remarkable results this year by attracting investments totaling 2.2024 trillion KRW from 21 companies including POSCO Lithium Solutions Co., Ltd., Oracle Cloud Data Center, and Lotte Chemical Co., Ltd., creating 1,585 jobs.

The success is attributed to Gwangyang City's proactive investment attraction efforts, which laid the foundation for upgrading the regional industrial structure through attracting high-quality companies and providing quality jobs desired by local youth.

On the 16th, the city received the Excellence Award in the ‘2021 Jeollanam-do Investment Attraction Evaluation’ at the Jeollanam-do Job and Investment Attraction Festival.

▲ Building a value chain for secondary battery materials, the ‘future food source’

The city formed a POSCO Chemical investment attraction T/F team to proactively discover and respond to POSCO Chemical’s investment trends and create customized investment conditions. It also established a close cooperation system with related organizations such as Jeollanam-do and the Gwangyang Bay Area Free Economic Zone Authority to promptly address corporate difficulties.

As a result of these efforts, POSCO Chemical’s investment attraction was realized in 2018 at the Gwangyang Yulchon Industrial Complex, and after the first phase of the cathode material plant was launched the same year, the fourth phase plant was expanded this year, enabling an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of cathode materials.

The annual 100,000 tons of cathode materials is enough to be used in about 1.1 million electric vehicle batteries.

Additionally, in May, POSCO Lithium Solutions Co., Ltd. broke ground on a lithium hydroxide manufacturing plant capable of producing 43,000 tons annually, enough for 1 million electric vehicles, with an investment of 760 billion KRW. In September, POSCO HY Clean Metal Co., Ltd. started the first phase of its secondary battery precious metal extraction project with an investment of 120 billion KRW.

With the sequential construction of cathode material manufacturing, lithium hydroxide manufacturing, and secondary battery recycling plants in the Gwangyang Yulchon Industrial Complex, Gwangyang City has emerged as a secondary battery production hub equipped with a value chain for secondary battery materials from raw materials to recycling.

▲ Jeollanam-do’s first Oracle Cloud Data Center construction

In November, Gwangyang City signed an investment agreement worth 700 billion KRW with Korea Oracle Co., Ltd., Maston Investment Management Co., Ltd., and partner companies KT, POSCO Construction, POSCO ICT, and LS ELECTRIC for the construction of a cloud data center.

Cloud data centers, which have emerged as key infrastructure in the big data era, have been concentrated mainly in the metropolitan area but are gradually relocating to provincial areas due to the government’s power distribution policy.

The city leveraged the geographic advantages of the Hwanggeum Industrial Complex, stable power supply, and excellent communication networks to attract the data center, and visited related agencies multiple times to plan the cloud data center construction.

According to the agreement, Korea Oracle Co., Ltd. and Maston Investment Management Co., Ltd. will build and operate a cloud data center on 105,563㎡ of the Hwanggeum Industrial Complex and plan to hire about 200 new employees while securing future tenant demand.

▲ Various support policies including subsidies for investment companies

Gwangyang City has eight industrial complexes with unique characteristics, including Iksin, Singeum, Chonam, Myeongdang, Sepung, Hwanggeum, Yulchon, and Dongseo Back Area. It is home to many related companies centered around POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks, the world’s largest single steel mill, and Gwangyang Port, ranked second in total cargo volume.

The city utilizes various subsidy support systems in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Jeollanam-do to revitalize unsold industrial complexes and facilitate smooth settlement of investment companies. It also uses a corporate manpower pool to obtain investment trends and information from potential investors.

Starting in 2022, according to the revision of Gwangyang City ordinances, expanded subsidy support policies such as support for issuance fees of performance guarantee insurance certificates and land readjustment subsidies for Iksin Industrial Complex will be implemented to reduce the burden on investment companies and create a ‘business-friendly city’ environment.

A Gwangyang City official said, “Despite the difficulties caused by COVID-19, the success of investment attraction in Gwangyang City this year was due to the firm will and passion of related officials working as one to attract companies.”