Pohang City Makes All-Out Effort to Attract National Advanced Strategic Technology 'Secondary Battery Specialized Complex'

Kim Nam-il Deputy Mayor Forms and Operates Specialized Complex Task Force

Favorable Conditions for Import and Export Including Companies, Research Institutes, Experts, and Ports

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Pohang City is making every effort to attract the national advanced strategic industry ‘Secondary Battery Specialized Complex’ to leap forward as a global secondary battery industry core hub city with overwhelming competitiveness.

On the 19th, the city announced that it has formed a Secondary Battery Specialized Complex Task Force, led by Vice Mayor Nam-il Kim and composed of Gyeongbuk Province, Pohang City, POSTECH, and secondary battery-related companies, actively promoting Pohang’s industrial ecosystem with optimal infrastructure in the secondary battery field and striving to attract the specialized complex.

The designated fields for the national advanced strategic industry specialized complex were selected through the National Advanced Strategic Industry Committee last November, with 15 strategic technologies chosen in three strategic industry groups: secondary batteries, semiconductors, and displays. Pohang City is making an all-out effort to attract the secondary battery sector among these.

To scale up the secondary battery industry ecosystem, the city started a research project for the creation of the specialized complex in November last year and has been making efforts to attract it in line with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s official public recruitment schedule, including attending the joint briefing session for the national advanced strategic industry specialized complex held at the Korea Technology Center in Seoul on January 10.

If selected as a specialized complex, it can receive exceptional benefits such as investment in commercialization facilities related to national strategic technologies, research and development support, exemption from preliminary feasibility studies, and reductions in usage fees for national and public properties for resident companies, so fierce competition among local governments is expected.

The city has favorable conditions for attraction, with large companies such as POSCO Chemical, EcoPro, and GS Construction investing in secondary battery materials and battery recycling businesses, and more than 30 upstream and downstream related companies residing in the industrial complex, establishing its position as a secondary battery specialized industrial complex.

Additionally, Pohang is actively fostering the secondary battery industry as a key strategic industry by attracting investments exceeding 3.9 trillion KRW from secondary battery companies, including signing a memorandum of understanding for a 1 trillion KRW investment with CNGR, the world’s number one company in secondary battery precursor materials from China, and hosting the Pohang Battery Conference.

On November 24th last year, Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk Province (fourth from the left), Deng Weiming, Chairman of CNGR China (fifth from the left), and Lee Kang-deok, Mayor of Pohang (sixth from the left), are signing a memorandum of understanding for investment.

It also has a foundation to nurture research personnel from concentrated R&BD institutions such as POSTECH, Pohang Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, Accelerator Research Institute, Pohang Technopark, and Pohang Metal Materials Industry Promotion Agency, as well as process and field personnel from Polytechnics and Meister High Schools.

Last November, 30 organizations launched the ‘Gyeongbuk Secondary Battery Industry-Academia-Research-Government Innovation Governance’ to unite innovative capabilities for the designation of the Pohang Secondary Battery Specialized Complex.

Moreover, possessing Yeongilman Port, the only container port on the East Coast, makes export and import advantageous, and as the starting point of the automotive industry value chain connecting Ulsan-Gyeongju-Pohang, it can consolidate industrial capabilities. If selected in this public contest, it is expected to play a foothold role in leading the development of Korea’s next-generation strategic industries.

Mayor Kang-deok Lee said, “Pohang has the optimal conditions to be designated as a secondary battery specialized complex,” adding, “We will make the Pohang Secondary Battery Specialized Complex a cradle for fostering national advanced strategic technologies, contribute to Korea’s development by securing overwhelming technological competitiveness, and become a model for balanced regional development with new growth engines in the era of local extinction.”

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to confirm the demand for designation of national advanced strategic industry specialized complexes from metropolitan city and provincial governors, companies, and heads of related central administrative agencies by February 27.

Subsequently, specialized complex candidates that meet legal designation requirements such as securing professional manpower and infrastructure and potential for linked development with major regional industries will be comprehensively evaluated on strategies for building cooperative ecosystems between demand and supply companies, plans to attract domestic and foreign companies, and leading company investment plans. The specialized complexes will be designated through the resolution of the National Advanced Strategic Industry Committee to be held in the first half of this year.

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