Gwangju and South Jeolla Province held a launch ceremony Thursday for the Southwest Region (Gwangju·Jeonnam) Regional Innovation Cluster Task Force at the Venezia Hotel in Yeosu, formally kicking off efforts to build a wide-area innovation ecosystem centered on the energy industry.
About 180 people attended the ceremony, including officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT), local governments in Gwangju and South Jeolla Province, related institutions, universities and businesses. Participants shared views on the need to build an industrial innovation ecosystem in the southwest region and pledged to strengthen a joint cooperation framework between Gwangju and South Jeolla Province.
The task force was established in response to the government's "5 Poles, 3 Specials" regional restructuring initiative, with the aim of linking Gwangju and South Jeolla Province into a single wide-area innovation zone and reinforcing industry-led innovation. Gwangju and South Jeolla Province plan to fully activate a wide-area cooperation platform by organically connecting the region's industrial base, technology capabilities, corporate demand and resources from innovation institutions.
The Southwest Region Innovation Cluster Task Force brings together 13 innovation institutions and universities — including the Gwangju Institute for Regional Program Evaluation, the Jeonnam Institute for Regional Program Evaluation, Gwangju Technopark, Jeonnam Technopark, Korea Electric Power Corp., the Green Energy Research Institute and Chonnam National University — to jointly pursue research and development, technology commercialization, corporate support and workforce training.
The task force plans to invest 15.3 billion won (about $10 million) annually from 2026 through 2030 to strengthen ties between the strategic industries of Gwangju and South Jeolla Province. The initiative aims to advance a wide-area collaborative R&D framework by combining Gwangju's strengths in AI and future mobility with South Jeolla Province's industrial base.
Gwangju intends to use the task force's launch as a springboard to accelerate innovation outcomes driven by corporate demand, boosting the technological competitiveness of local businesses and supporting the growth of new industries and the upgrading of the regional industrial ecosystem.
Over the past three years, Gwangju and South Jeolla Province identified 800 innovative companies and trained 788 innovation professionals through the regional innovation cluster development program, generating 40.9 billion won in commercialization sales and 53 new jobs, steadily building a foundation for regional industrial innovation.
"This is an opportunity to formally launch a wide-area innovation ecosystem centered on the energy industry by connecting the industrial, technological and human talent capabilities of Gwangju and South Jeolla Province," said Park Jun-sik, head of Gwangju's energy industry division. "Gwangju will actively support efforts to generate results — in business growth, technology commercialization and job creation — through the convergence of local strategic industries such as AI and future mobility with the energy sector."
sij@heraldcorp.com
