Pohang Dreams of Transforming into an 'ESG Startup City'! ... Establishment of the 1st ESG Startup Center

ESG Startup Cluster Development Begins → Accelerating Selection for Corporate Innovation Park Competition

Expecting Sustainable Leap by Fostering Young Talent, Creating Jobs, and Overcoming Local Extinction Crisis

Pohang City Hall.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Pohang City will hold the ‘ESG Startup Hub Vision Proclamation Ceremony’ at Handong Global University on the 26th.

This proclamation ceremony includes the establishment of the first ESG Startup Center and its future vision, and plans to solidify its position as an ESG startup hub through additional startup center establishments and support.

ESG is an advanced concept of sustainable development that has been actively spreading since 2004 through UN meetings, and interest in ESG issues such as climate change, public health, and environmental protection has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Accordingly, the necessity of ESG management for corporate sustainability has expanded, and creative ESG startups aimed at solving social and environmental problems and improving governance have also begun to increase.

In response to the trend requiring ESG value reflection across all sectors beyond corporations, Pohang, which is challenging the transformation from a steel city to a green ecological city, held an ESG proclamation ceremony last November, expressing its ambition to leap forward as an ESG leading city.

As a follow-up step, in January this year, Pohang signed a business agreement with the global accelerator SparkLabs, Handong Global University, and UNAI KOREA to establish the ‘ESG Pohang Startup Cluster’ to position itself as the birthplace of ESG startups.

The main goal of the ESG Startup Cluster is to support the successful commercialization of startups with innovative ideas related to environmental, social, and governance improvements.

A private fund based in the Pohang region will be established, managed by the global accelerator SparkLabs, and will provide broad support not only through investment funds but also through startup support programs, global networks, and overseas expansion plans necessary for startups in their early growth stages to ensure stable business entry into the main track.

Handong Global University is expected to create synergy effects as it has optimal conditions for nurturing excellent startup talent and fostering global companies through its global network extending worldwide, technological cooperation with POSTECH, and activation of the venture ecosystem through an MOU with POSCO Holdings Future Technology Research Institute.

The city will accelerate preparations for the selection of the Corporate Innovation Park contest, a flagship project of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s national agenda scheduled for the second half of the year, starting with the establishment of the ESG startup cluster centered on Handong Global University.

Through win-win cooperation with the local university Handong Global University, the city aims to expand the infrastructure necessary for a startup city, induce the inflow and settlement of young populations, and ultimately complete a sustainable local city model that overcomes the crisis of regional extinction.

Mayor Kang-deok Lee said, “Growing into an ESG startup city is not only a solution for nurturing young talent and creating jobs but also a clue to solving social and environmental problems that could not be addressed by existing systems and a breakthrough to overcome the crisis of regional extinction. We will do our best to establish the ESG startup cluster and further the ESG global innovation city to achieve sustainable development of Pohang.”

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