Gyeongnam's 8th Term Priority 'Green Startup Town' Rises Proudly in Jinju

Gyeongsangnam-do has been finally selected in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ ‘Green Startup Town Development Project’ competition, and will establish a core startup facility covering the western region centered on Jinju.

On the 29th, Gyeongnam Province announced that it was selected among five metropolitan local governments through the first round of document and on-site evaluations and the second round of presentation evaluations in this competition to build infrastructure for the growth of local startup companies.

With the attraction of this project, the province will receive 14.5 billion KRW in national funding over two years, including 500 million KRW for design costs this year and 14 billion KRW for construction costs in 2024.

Comprehensive plan for the creation of Gyeongnam Green Startup Town. [Image provided by Gyeongnam Provincial Government]

According to the province, the Green Startup Town Development Project is a project to build and support an integrated eco-friendly complex hub center where existing startup support infrastructures can form a single cooperative district.

To restore the declining urban functions centered on startups and ventures, the project links with urban regeneration projects to build startup parks, knowledge industry centers, makerspaces, and other startup support facilities into one complex central facility, supporting the growth of local startups to revitalize the regional economy and promote talent inflow.

The province plans to invest a total project cost of 45.3 billion KRW, including 18 billion KRW in local government funds and the provision of land from Gyeongsang National University, to build the Green Startup Town at Gyeongsang National University Chilam Campus in Jinju by 2025.

Gyeongsangnam-do and Jinju City will act as the lead institutions, with Gyeongsang National University as the representative cooperating institution. Eleven local innovation institutions including the Gyeongnam Center for Creative Economy and Innovation and Gyeongnam Technopark, as well as domestic accelerators (AC) and venture capital (VC) firms, will participate in the project.

Regional 3 Major Startup Hub Development Plan of Gyeongnam Province under the 8th Elected Administration. [Image provided by Gyeongnam Provincial Government]

Last year, Gyeongsangnam-do set the promotion of the Green Startup Town Development Project as a core task of the 8th elected provincial government and has been pursuing the attraction of the project to support startups specialized in aerospace, anti-aging, green energy, and information and communication technology (ICT) digital industries in the western region.

Through this project, it is expected to utilize the educational and research facilities of the university campus and create an open startup base equipped with residential, cultural, and community living conditions linked to ongoing urban regeneration projects near the old downtown, industrial complex regeneration projects, and the former Jinju Station cultural regeneration project.

Governor Park Wan-su said, “By attracting the Green Startup Town to the western region of Gyeongnam, the establishment of three major startup bases by region has been completed along with the Youth Startup Academy in the eastern region and the Campus Innovation Park project in the central region currently under development.” He added, “We will do our best to expand the foundation for startup companies and support commercialization through cooperation with participating institutions so that Gyeongnam can play a leading role as a startup hub.”

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