Daejeon City - Defense Acquisition Program Administration Collaborate to Establish Daejeon Defense Industry Innovation Cluster

On the 29th, Lee Jang-woo, Mayor of Daejeon (right), is taking a commemorative photo with Eom Dong-hwan, Administrator of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (left), after signing a business agreement. Provided by Daejeon City

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Daejeon City and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) have agreed to mutually cooperate in establishing the Daejeon Defense Industry Innovation Cluster.

On the 29th, the city announced that it had signed a business agreement with DAPA on this matter. The agreement was made based on the city being selected in DAPA’s public contest for the ‘Defense Industry Innovation Cluster Project.’

According to the agreement, both organizations will collaborate on ▲forming the cluster project task force and regional council ▲establishing a specialized roadmap in the drone sector and building a supportive ecosystem ▲operating defense industry specialized development research institutes and supporting workforce training ▲supporting research and development, testing, certification, and demonstration ▲comprehensive support for defense small and venture companies ▲supporting startup and job-specialized projects, among other initiatives.

The Defense Industry Innovation Cluster project will focus on creating an innovative ecosystem for the defense industry by investing a total of 49 billion KRW over five years (24.5 billion KRW each from national and city funds) to support the growth of defense small and venture companies.

Through this project, the city plans to secure technological competitiveness in military-related fields and commercialize technologies by analyzing military demands and technology trends to derive a specialized roadmap for new defense industries.

Additionally, the city will establish and operate defense industry specialized development research institutes centered on government-funded research institutes and universities located in the region to support technology development and train specialized personnel.

In this process, the city will build an equipment support platform as local technology development infrastructure for specialized research, testing, and demonstration, and will provide equipment that individual small and venture companies find difficult to establish based on corporate demand.

In particular, by supporting commercialization through new technology development and technology transfer, the project aims to foster the startup of more than 50 defense companies and encourage civilian companies with excellent technologies to enter the defense market.

Previously, the city was the first among local governments nationwide to establish a dedicated defense organization in 2013 and has been fostering the defense industry as a regional priority project while developing an advanced defense convergence complex that combines industrial sites, defense manufacturing industries, research facilities, and public functions for civil-military cooperation.

Lee Jang-woo, Mayor of Daejeon, stated, “Daejeon is an optimal location for building a defense industry innovation platform as it is a hub of research and development capabilities with government-funded research institutes, major defense company research centers, and KAIST, and is adjacent to the military, the demand institution,” adding, “By establishing a defense industry innovation cluster involving various innovative entities, we will play a significant role in national defense industry innovation and revitalize the regional economy.”

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