Lee Byung-hoon "Creating Startup Innovation Cities in Vacant Spaces of Original Downtown Areas like Geumnam-ro"

Byunhoon Lee, the Democratic Party preliminary candidate for the Gwangju Dong-gu Nam-gu-eul constituency in the general election, announced on the 30th as his third pledge that he will carry out the Geumnam Valley Project to enable a large number of startup companies in the fields of cultural content, bio, and mobility based on artificial intelligence to settle in the old downtown area including Geumnam-ro, thereby forming a new economic block in Gwangju.

Lee pointed to the younger generation as the main drivers of this project, citing their fresh ideas, passion for technology, interest in new trends, and high innovation index toward the existing system as reasons.

The Geumnam Valley Project is a plan to create a fertile area for three major future industries?cultural content such as video, design, games, and music; bio fields including medical, healthcare, and beauty tourism; and mobility software?based on the growth potential of youth and artificial intelligence in the old downtown area including Geumnam-ro, which is suffering from an extreme vacancy rate of about 30%.

First, to revitalize the still unexplored cultural content industry, Lee announced plans to focus on nurturing the five major contents of the Asia Culture Center city?advanced video, design, games, music, and entertainment?in connection with the Asia Culture Center’s Creation and Production Center. Currently, Gwangju’s cultural content industry accounts for only 1.7% of the national scale, remaining at a minimal level. To grow it into a content industry comparable in scale to the metropolitan area, the Creation and Production Center of the Asia Culture Center should establish a partnership system for research and investment exhibitions in collaboration with numerous startup companies as a platform for technology development.

In the bio sector, including medical, healthcare, and beauty tourism, major medical institutions such as Chonnam National University Hospital, Chosun University Hospital, and Christian Hospital are concentrated in Gwangju’s old downtown area, and many companies related to beauty such as skin care are also located there. Lee believes that by effectively linking these, a new industrial system in the beauty tourism sector can be established.

Recently, the beauty tattoo field and others have requested the government to designate the Gwangju old downtown area as a regulatory free zone, and there is growing demand to allow a 'regulatory sandbox' for a certain period from the 'Medical Service Act,' which has been an obstacle, to demonstrate the safety of beauty tattoos. Lee also noted that if a smart healthcare town is created in the old downtown area, key technology development related to this will become part of the Geumnam Valley Project.

Regarding the upcoming mobility industry, Lee suggested that the manufacturing sector, which requires large-scale facilities and infrastructure, be installed in Gwangju’s automobile industrial complex area, while various ICT-related software within mobility should be intensively nurtured in the office town of the old downtown area, thus distributing roles. The most essential infrastructure here is the artificial intelligence data dam. Gwangju has already completed the construction of a world-class AI data center with 88.5 petaflops (PF) and started services at the end of 2023.

Based on this infrastructure, Lee emphasized the need for focused development of software sectors such as mobility content and service networks.

The main contents of the Geumnam Valley Project revealed by Lee are research results obtained through numerous experts, forums, and discussions during his four years in the National Assembly. A significant portion of these has already undergone demonstration stages. Additionally, the cultural content sector is included in the 'Asia Culture Center City Comprehensive Plan,' which he planned while serving as the head of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Asia Culture Center City Promotion Team.

Lee stressed, "The growth of Gwangju’s youth has already surpassed the imagination of the older generation, and their potential is very bright. Intensive investment and deep interest and support for the creation of an autonomous growth ecosystem are necessary."

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