One Year of the 8th Elected Term in Pohang: Accelerating Leap to a Global City through Creativity, Convergence, and Innovation

As Pohang City marks the first year of the 8th term of the elected mayor, it is accelerating its leap into a world-class city through dynamic city administration based on the accumulated strength and capabilities of the city, driven by creativity, convergence, and innovation.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok, who took office in 2014, has been working with citizens to create a sustainable future for the city under the administrative philosophy of "Change Together, Leap Forward Pohang."

Lee Gang-deok, Mayor of Pohang.

Through the 6th and 7th terms, the city diversified its steel-centered single industry structure by discovering innovative new industries such as batteries, bio, and hydrogen, promoted the transition to an eco-friendly city through the Greenway Project, and fostered marine cultural tourism, achieving meaningful results across various fields.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok stated, “We continue to face challenging new tasks amid rapidly changing environments such as the climate crisis and carbon neutrality, metropolitan concentration issues, and entering a super-aged society,” adding, “To overcome these, we are actively utilizing Pohang’s unique strengths such as excellent R&D infrastructure, talent, and marine support to promote new future strategies in the 8th term.”

▲ Becoming South Korea’s Top Battery Material City + Bio and Health Hub City

This year, Pohang City set the slogan “Creative Convergence Innovation, Pohang Leaping to the World.” At the core of realizing this is the cultivation of “new growth core industries” such as secondary batteries and bio, contributing to South Korea’s leap to a global powerhouse, securing a super-gap competitiveness, and presenting a sustainable model for local cities.

Starting with attracting the global battery material company EcoPro in 2016, the Battery Regulatory Free Zone designated in 2019 has been selected as an excellent zone for three consecutive years nationwide.

In the first half of this year alone, Pohang attracted large-scale investments worth 5.5 trillion KRW from major companies such as POSCO Future M and achieved great results including becoming the world’s No.1 producer of key cathode materials. Pohang is focusing all efforts on designating a “secondary battery specialized complex” to lead the continuous global market dominance and secure global super-gap competitiveness of the battery industry through government support.

Furthermore, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Pohang is dedicating efforts to preemptively secure the bio-health industry, which is expanding globally and gaining importance, and to establish a research-oriented medical school at POSTECH to nurture physician-scientists who will lead this field.

In this regard, Pohang has continuously expanded various innovative infrastructures such as the Bio Open Innovation Center and the Membrane Protein Research Institute to preoccupy the bio industry. Above all, steady efforts are being made to establish a research-oriented medical school at POSTECH, the optimal place for nurturing physician-scientists, with the opening of the Graduate School of Medical Science this year as a preparatory step.

Recently, as the government and medical organizations agreed to expand medical school admissions in 2025, Pohang City is making every effort to ensure the establishment of the research-oriented medical school by achieving national consensus and other final goals.

▲ Strengthening Global Competitiveness in Advanced Industries through Participation in CES 2023 in the U.S.

In January this year, Pohang City visited Las Vegas, USA, where CES 2023, the world’s largest information technology exhibition and a “global innovation stage for new industries,” was held, to review the latest technology information and industry trends and explore concrete cooperation plans with global companies that could be linked to local industries.

As the only basic local government in South Korea, Pohang operated a dedicated booth, the Pohang Pavilion, attracting worldwide attention to the excellent technology of 30 participating local companies. As a result, six Pohang companies won the “Innovation Award,” given to innovative products leading the global market.

Along with this, Pohang visited Apple’s global headquarters to discuss development plans linked to local new industries and discussed expanding functions of the Pohang Apple Developer Academy (with 289 graduates in the first class) and the Manufacturing R&D Support Center (which supported 98 small and medium enterprises in 2022) to activate related startups.

▲ Providing Vitality to the Livelihood Economy through Focused Support for Small Business Owners

Pohang City has also achieved results by providing vitality to the livelihood economy through focused support for small business owners and revitalizing local commercial districts.

Since 2017, Pohang has continuously issued the Pohang Love Gift Certificates, a catalyst for local economic revitalization, with a total cumulative issuance amount reaching 1.809 trillion KRW, including 325.2 billion KRW this year. The city plans to continue issuing them due to their significant positive ripple effects on production inducement and added value in the livelihood economy.

Along with this, the city is invigorating the local economy by strengthening competitiveness through designating specialized streets for the food service industry. Various specialized streets are being created, starting with the Seolmeori Mulhoe District, where Pohang’s representative dish Mulhoe can be enjoyed, the Saerok Saero Premium Street specializing in pork belly, and the Mundeok Hello Military Unit Street near the military base.

Additionally, to increase sales of excellent local agricultural and specialty products, Pohang expanded various distribution channels such as direct transaction markets and live commerce in line with rapidly changing consumer trends, achieving sales of 7.5 billion KRW last year.

▲ Citizen-Centered Eco-Friendly City through Greenway Expansion and Convenient Transportation

Pohang City is accelerating its transformation into a citizen-centered, convenient, eco-friendly city by expanding the Greenway Project and transportation networks.

The city is expanding green forests and walking trails throughout the downtown area to create a pedestrian-friendly city where all citizens can enjoy healthy leisure. The flagship project, the premium walking trail Cheolgil Forest, will have a citizen plaza completed by the end of this year, and forest paths will be created along Posco-daero and Hope-daero to complete a green network connecting the entire downtown.

Following the approval of Cheolgil Forest and Haedo Urban Forest under the greenhouse gas emission trading system last year, the cultural forest of Baetmeori Village and Yeonil Neighborhood Park were additionally approved in June this year, making Pohang the local government with the most approvals nationwide at four sites, leading carbon neutrality.

The Yeongilman Bridge project, a long-standing wish of residents in the East Coast region beyond Pohang, is scheduled to be actively promoted from this year. For the first time in a government plan, a budget of 5 billion KRW has been allocated, and the Korea Development Institute (KDI) is currently reviewing the appropriateness of the project plan, after which design work will begin.

Also, the Dongbin Bridge, a sea bridge connecting Songdo-dong in Nam-gu and Hanggu-dong in Buk-gu, is being smoothly constructed. Scheduled for completion in 2026, it is expected to greatly improve traffic flow on city roads and currently shows about 25% progress.

Along with this, the operation of the Pohang?Suseo SRT, one of Mayor Lee Kang-deok’s key pledges, will begin around September this year. The city is innovating transportation infrastructure by advancing intelligent transportation systems and piloting demand-responsive mobility to alleviate traffic congestion and improve accessibility, aiming to become a convenient city where people gather.

▲ A Marine Tourism City Overflowing with Attractions that Draw People

In early June, the largest international cruise ship since the opening of Yeongilman Port, with a capacity of 114,000 tons, successfully resumed trial operations. Confirming the potential of Pohang as a high value-added international cruise tourism city, the city plans to expand marine tourism product development.

Additionally, the International Exhibition and Convention Center, which will serve as a hub for fostering the MICE industry in harmony with the city’s natural marine resources, entered the design phase at the end of last year. The Homigot National Marine Garden project, which will become the center of East Coast marine ecological tourism and marine healing, was selected as a preliminary feasibility study target project and is expected to start as early as next year.

Since the launch of the Pohang Cultural Foundation and Pohang’s designation as the nation’s first legal cultural city in 2019, the cultural and artistic base has greatly expanded. The “Culture and Arts Factory” was created inside the Buk-gu Office, which opened last year, providing citizens with various cultural experience opportunities. The Suhyup Frozen Warehouse located in the old downtown Dongbin Inner Port is planned to open in the second half of this year as a complex cultural and artistic experience hub.

Moreover, the Seokgok Memorial Hall, which will reexamine the thoughts and life of Seokgok Lee Gyu-jun, a figure born in Pohang, will open in July, and efforts are being accelerated to build the Pohang City Museum to enhance citizen identity.

Also, Pohang plans to complete the Disabled National Sports Center and the Buk-gu Gateball Field this year to enable citizens to conveniently engage in sports activities, and will build National Sports Centers in Haedo, Songdo, and Yeonil to gradually expand the sports base.

▲ Realizing Inclusive Welfare for Happiness Across All Generations

Designated as a women-friendly city in 2012, Pohang City was re-designated by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in December last year in recognition of its achievements in promoting gender equality and various other projects.

In particular, last year, the number of women working under the women’s time-selective employment system, praised for supporting career-interrupted women through programs like the Mom’s Helping Hands Group and Child Happiness Helpers, expanded to 590, and the operating hours of the Workplace Mom SOS Service for work-family balance were extended.

Also, the Dream Tree Center, a cultural welfare space for youth, opened in October last year, and Gyeongbuk Science High School relocated to Jigok-dong in May this year to nurture scientific talent.

The Complex Community Center to support cultural and sports activities for residents of Heunghae-eup, who suffered great damage from the Pohang earthquake, was completed in January this year, and the Integrated Veterans Hall to support national veterans and their families opened in June.

Furthermore, Pohang City was selected for the pilot project of sickness benefits that compensate income so workers can focus on treatment when ill, which has been in operation since July last year, benefiting 831 workers to date.

▲ Prioritizing Citizens’ Safety and Health from Disasters

In September last year, Pohang announced a comprehensive safety city plan after suffering significant damage from Typhoon Hinnamnor and is promoting new safety policies with standards to respond to increasingly severe natural disasters and climate change.

Restoration work has been underway since May to improve local rivers such as Naengcheon, damaged by Hinnamnor, with 64 small rivers nearing completion of restoration.

Also, the Hangsa Dam, which is being promoted to regulate Naengcheon’s water level, was exempted from the preliminary feasibility study in February this year, allowing the construction schedule to be shortened.

By strengthening the functions of rainwater pumping stations in flood-prone areas such as Changpo-dong, Songdo, Daesong, Yeonil, Guryongpo, and the Steel Industrial Complex, the city is enhancing urban flood control capabilities.

Along with this, Pohang plans to steadily prepare large-scale infrastructure with new standards such as large drainage tunnels and cutoff walls that can fundamentally prevent flooding, based on the results of the ongoing urban diagnosis for creating a safe city, for future generations.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “The various policies we have pursued so far have been successful thanks to the active interest and participation of all members and citizens,” adding, “We will do our best with about 2,000 public officials to wisely overcome the concentration in the metropolitan area and the crisis of local extinction and complete Pohang’s leap to a sustainable world-class city, opening a brighter and more hopeful future.”

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