Hong Nampyo, Changwon Special City Mayor: "Defense Industry Will Drive Changwon's Economic Recovery"

Introduction of Changwon Defense Industry Development Strategy at Mobile Firepower Equipment Power Generation Forum

Hong Nampyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City, Gyeongnam, attended the '2022 Mobile Firepower Equipment Power Generation Forum' at the Comprehensive Education Building of Changwon National University.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Song Jong-gu] “We will systematically and progressively implement various defense industry support policies to establish an advanced defense science and technology cluster and nurture talent in the defense industry.”

Hong Nam-pyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City, Gyeongnam, said this on the 21st at the ‘2022 Mobile Firepower Equipment Power Development Forum’ held at Changwon University’s Comprehensive Education Hall.

Hosted by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration and organized by the Defense Technology Quality Institute, this forum, now in its 6th year, was attended by over 300 participants including officials from the Army Education Command, Changwon University, Changwon City, defense companies, and members of the defense industry cluster.

The forum featured a keynote speech by Professor Yang Byung-hee of KAIST on ‘Building an AI-based Advanced Science and Technology Military’ followed by an introduction to ‘Changwon University Advanced Defense Engineering’ by Professor Park Jong-gyu of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Changwon University.

The second part of the academic seminar was divided into three sessions covering mobile weapon systems, firepower weapon systems, and advanced and future technologies of mobile firepower equipment.

Participants exchanged knowledge and discussed cooperation methods regarding new technologies for mobile firepower equipment in the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, future development directions, and formed a consensus on expanding the foundation of the defense industry.

Changwon Special City is home to 17 of the 85 nationally designated defense companies and about 380 defense cooperation companies engaged in production activities. It is the mecca of K-defense, with defense industry research infrastructure and specialized talent concentrated in facilities such as the Army Comprehensive Maintenance Depot, Navy Maintenance Depot, Defense Technology Quality Institute Mobile Firepower Center, Defense Science Research Institute Marine Technology Institute, Korea Institute of Materials Science, and Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute.

In the past two years, to revive the economy stagnated by COVID-19, high oil prices, and inflation amid domestic and international economic downturns, the city government of the 8th term has designated the defense industry as a key industry to lead regional economic revitalization and adopted it as a core pledge, while strengthening cooperation among private enterprises, the Changwon city government, and military units.

Along with this, the city is providing systematic administrative support to strengthen the competitiveness of the defense industry by creating opportunities for sharing the latest technologies and exchanging information among industry, academia, research, and military sectors of defense companies based in Changwon. This has garnered high interest from participating defense system companies regarding the blueprint for defense industry policies.

Mayor Hong said, “Through this forum, we will reaffirm our commitment as strategic partners among the military, government, industry, academia, and research for defense reform, and provide systematic support for the defense industry so that defense companies located in the area can secure advanced technologies and take a leap forward to enter the global market.”

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