Pohang City, South Korea's Leading Advanced Industry City Hope... Expanding Future Value

Specialized Secondary Battery Complex and Hydrogen Cluster, Milestone in National Advanced Industry Development

Bio-Innovation Research Center Selected in Public Competition, Global Data Campus Center Campus

Record High Investment Attraction

Pohang City is expanding its future value by securing sustainable urban competitiveness through fostering advanced strategic industries and leading the development of new growth industries in the Republic of Korea.

Perspective view of the Green Bio Venture Campus scheduled to begin construction in the first half of this year.

Over the past year, the city has achieved significant results in advanced new growth industries such as secondary batteries, hydrogen, and bio, which are key focus areas to diversify the industrial structure, create quality jobs, and contribute to national development.

In particular, Pohang, which attracted a record investment of 7.4 trillion KRW, simultaneously achieved the designation of a secondary battery specialized complex, was selected as an excellent regulatory-free special zone for batteries nationwide for four consecutive years for the first time, and passed the preliminary feasibility study for the hydrogen fuel cell cluster, setting a monumental milestone that goes beyond securing new regional growth engines to contributing to Korea’s innovative development.

Additionally, POSTECH was the only institution selected in the advanced bio field in the Ministry of Science and ICT’s Future Technology Innovation Research Center (IRC) competition (total project cost of 57.8 billion KRW), and the city also embarked on building the nation’s first global data center campus linked to the Yukyang countries, which is evaluated as laying a solid cornerstone for leading innovation in national strategic technologies and realizing not only battery-based national security but also bio and digital national security.

The city will continue to make every effort with meticulous preparation, including securing national investment budgets for pilot projects, to maintain market dominance in the increasingly fierce global new industry hegemony competition and lead Korea’s innovative development in the new year.

First, in the secondary battery sector, the city will actively strengthen global cooperation and foster customized talent, which are increasingly necessary due to the designation of the specialized complex.

It is preparing to establish the “Global Secondary Battery Cooperation Support Center (28 billion KRW)” to promote international cooperation and overseas market entry in collaboration with POSTECH and leading universities in the United States and other innovative institutions. It also plans to open the “Secondary Battery Talent Development Academy (32 billion KRW)” in connection with the Korea Battery Industry Association and glocal universities.

Furthermore, in the bio-health sector, the city will begin construction in the first half of this year of the “Green Bio Venture Campus,” a startup space to raise the high growth potential of green bio (a new industry applying biotechnology to agriculture and fisheries) fused with advanced technologies such as IT and BT, which are differentiated strengths of Pohang. It will also accelerate the establishment of various platforms to lead new drug development and green and red bio technology development.

Alongside this, the city will actively build the Steel Metal Digital Transformation (DX) Demonstration Center (23 billion KRW), which utilizes digital technology for performance evaluation and reliability verification in steel product manufacturing processes, and the Food Tech Square Convergence and Complex Support Center (29.2 billion KRW) to create an innovative ecosystem for future food industries by integrating advanced technology and the food industry.

Through these efforts, Pohang plans to aggressively secure national funding this year to accelerate the digital transformation of the steel industry, a traditional manufacturing industry forming the city’s foundation, and to expand the ecosystem of promising new industries such as AI and big data.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “We will vigorously move forward as Korea’s top advanced industrial city through the convergence of innovative research capabilities, creative talents, and rapidly growing new industries,” adding, “We will continue to devote ourselves to leading sustainable development in Pohang and the future growth of the Republic of Korea.”

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