Pohang City Accelerates Leap as a Hub for New Industry Investment Attraction in South Korea

Over the Past 8 Years, Around 100 Innovative New Industry-Centered Companies... Large-Scale Investment of About 9 Trillion Won

Initiating Additional Expansion of Industrial Complexes Due to Diversification of Industrial Structure and Surge in Deman

Pohang City is gaining momentum in its leap toward becoming a global new industry hub beyond South Korea by achieving remarkable results such as attracting significant corporate investments and establishing optimal infrastructure in future growth industries like secondary batteries.

Pohang City is striving to attract a secondary battery specialized complex.

According to the city, over the past eight years from the 6th to the 8th elected terms, it has successfully attracted large-scale investments totaling approximately 9 trillion KRW from about 100 companies focused on new industries such as secondary batteries, bio, and hydrogen in local industrial complexes including Yeongilman General Industrial Complex, Blue Valley National Industrial Complex, and Convergence Technology Industrial Zone.

Through these achievements, Pohang City is analyzed to have succeeded in diversifying its industrial structure from steel-centric to new industries, simultaneously securing innovative regional economic growth drivers and differentiated urban competitiveness.

Despite facing difficult times in recent years due to induced earthquakes, COVID-19, and economic downturns, Pohang is creating an optimized convergence industrial ecosystem by leveraging its unique strengths such as POSTECH, Korea’s first research-oriented medical school, the world’s third completed 4th generation synchrotron radiation accelerator, and the Pohang Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, a top-level research institution in materials science.

Leading this effort, the ‘secondary battery’ sector is establishing a super-gap ecosystem based on a globally competitive industry-academia-research cooperation system, positioning Pohang as South Korea’s number one city for secondary batteries.

Since being designated as the ‘Battery Recycling Regulatory Free Zone’ in 2019, Pohang has been the only city nationwide to be recognized as an excellent special zone for three consecutive years. The Secondary Battery Integrated Management Center, completed in 2021, has become a hub for recycling used batteries.

With about 4 trillion KRW in investments attracted from anchor and small-medium enterprises such as EcoPro and POSCO Chemical, large-scale additional investment negotiations are ongoing, and a full-cycle ecosystem from core material production to recycling is being established.

Visible progress is also being made in the bio and hydrogen sectors. The Bio Open Innovation Center (BOIC), along with Pohang’s three major bio innovation platforms?the Pohang Knowledge Industry Center, Membrane Protein Research Institute, and Green Vaccine Demonstration Support Center?have opened sequentially, creating an optimal platform for bio companies and venture startups from research to technology commercialization.

In the hydrogen sector, following its designation as a hydrogen city support project by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in August last year, Pohang is currently undergoing a preliminary feasibility study for the ‘Hydrogen Fuel Cell Power Generation Cluster Construction Project,’ accelerating its leap as a leading eco-friendly hydrogen economy city.

Cases of innovative companies returning from the Seoul metropolitan area to Pohang are also continuing. Graphene Square, a graphene specialty company recognized globally for its innovative technology by winning the ‘Best Innovation Award’ at CES 2023, relocated its headquarters from the metropolitan area to Pohang in 2021.

Additionally, Neuromeka, a robot company headquartered in the metropolitan area, has confirmed its relocation to Pohang. Both company CEOs share the common background of being POSTECH alumni.

As corporate investments centered on new industries flood into Pohang, the Yeongilman Industrial Complex is currently showing about a 95% occupancy rate and is close to being fully sold out. The city judges that securing additional space for new tenants to attract and nurture companies such as those in the secondary battery sector, driven by explosive growth in the electric vehicle market, is crucial and is concentrating administrative efforts on proactive preparations.

Pohang City and Gyeongbuk Province held a signing ceremony for a large-scale investment memorandum of understanding worth 1 trillion won with CNGR on November 24 last year.

Kwon Hyuk-won, Director of the City’s Job and Economy Bureau, said, “Innovative companies choosing Pohang is a recognition of the city’s suitability for corporate growth, including R&D infrastructure and an industry-academia-research linked industrial ecosystem.” He added, “Since Pohang’s future depends on companies and investment attraction, we will do our best to create a 100-year livelihood by expanding investment attraction through support for corporate growth potential along with the expansion of the future industrial ecosystem.”

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