Gwangju City's '5 Major New Vitality Belt' Development Project Accelerates

Fostering Hubs for Fun, Healing, Transportation, Startups, and Digital Content

Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Kang Gi-jung) is accelerating the development of the ‘5 Major New Vitality Belts’ project, which will serve as hubs for fun, healing, transportation, startups, and digital content.

According to Gwangju City on the 25th, the city’s core project, the ‘5 Major New Vitality Belts,’ includes ▲ Yeongsan River and Hwangryong River Exciting Belt ▲ Gwangjucheon Ecological Healing Belt ▲ Gwangju Songjeong Station Vitality Belt ▲ Gwangju Station Startup Belt ▲ Hyochon Station Digital Content Belt.

The ‘Yeongsan River and Hwangryong River Exciting Belt (Y Belt),’ a key project of the 8th elected administration, is nearing completion of the feasibility study, including the basic plan. Supplementary work is being intensified after gathering opinions from citizens, experts, and related organizations.

Attention is focused on the core plan to see whether the Yeongsan River and Hwangryong River, which connect Gwangju and Jeonnam, can be transformed into a fun ‘honey-fun space’ that attracts people by addressing issues such as historical significance, ecological preservation, and improvement of water quality and quantity.

The ‘Gwangjucheon Ecological Healing Belt’ is designed to connect various cultural and tourism spaces around Gwangjucheon, including the National Asian Culture Complex, Yangnim-dong, and the former Jeonbang and Ilsin Textile sites, allowing citizens and tourists to enjoy culture, shopping, and leisure by bicycle or on foot centered around Gwangjucheon. Projects in this belt include ▲ development of waterfront spaces linked to Seobangcheon Kia Champions Field ▲ ecological environment maintenance of Gwangjucheon ▲ maintenance of bicycle paths along Gwangjucheon.

Additionally, following the selection of the Balsan Sports Village (Physical Balsan) project in Seo-gu for the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s local branding contest in May, Gwangju City’s related departments and Seo-gu Office have formed the ‘Balsan Village Landmark Task Force (TF)’ to support the vitality project.

As related projects, plans include ▲ development of waterfront spaces linked to Kia Champions Field, one of the Gwangjucheon Ecological Healing Belt projects ▲ tourism resource development of Ppongppong Bridge ▲ creation of Balsan Neighborhood Park ▲ establishment of the Asia Culture and Arts Village on the former Jeonbang and Ilsin Textile sites.

The ‘Gwangju Songjeong Station Vitality Belt’ involves the creation of a plaza in front of Gwangju Songjeong Station, development of an investment leading district, media art creation, and reconstruction of Jangnok Bridge. Following the completion and operation commencement of the new parking building at Gwangju Songjeong Station in May, the station building expansion project has completed detailed design and is scheduled to begin construction within this year.

The ‘Gwangju Station Startup Belt’ is a project to create the largest startup complex in the Honam region. The area around Gwangju Station will house the Bitgoeul Startup Station (startup incubation), a complex hub center (R&D support), a corporate innovation growth center (growth support), a social economy innovation town, and public housing linked to jobs.

The Bitgoeul Startup Station is scheduled for completion in the first half of next year, while the corporate innovation growth center and others are undergoing administrative procedures such as design competitions for implementation plan approval immediately after land acquisition. Additionally, an operational plan for the Gwangju Station Startup Valley is being developed to establish facility linkage and integrated operation methods.

The ‘Hyochon Station Digital Content Belt’ is being developed as a cultural content industry hub based on the Gwangju CGI Center and Gwangju Content Cube (GCC). The Gwangju Content Cube (GCC), which opened in November last year, is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities such as immersive filming studios and convergence studios, and booked a 100% studio reservation rate with 15 film shoots and performance productions scheduled in the second half of the year alone.

In connection with the Gwangju Content Cube, projects include ▲ creation of an advanced immersive cultural content theme park ▲ improvement of investment promotion district systems and operation of corporate attraction teams ▲ operation of an integrated human resource development platform and establishment of a shared hub center.

In this regard, Gwangju City recently applied to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport for an urban regeneration innovation district (43,402㎡) project to develop the Songam Industrial Complex in Songha-dong, Nam-gu, as a culture and digital-based mobility hub.

This project aims to create a mobility hub through training future car maintenance personnel and fostering aftermarket startups, and provide residential and recreational spaces for industrial complex workers by creating 150 job-linked housing units, parks, and green spaces.

?

Kim Jun-young, head of the New Vitality Promotion Headquarters, said, “We are accelerating the creation of the 5 Major New Vitality Belts, which will become hubs for fun, healing, transportation, startups, and digital content, by activating interdepartmental collaboration systems. Through strategic execution of key new vitality tasks such as attracting complex shopping malls, we will revitalize the city and lay the foundation for opening the era of 30 million urban users in Gwangju.”

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