Steel, petrochemicals, export ports, rail and logistics networks seen as key advantages in bid to attract defense industry

The No. 2 hot-rolling mill at Gwangyang Steelworks. [Herald DB]
The No. 2 hot-rolling mill at Gwangyang Steelworks. [Herald DB]

Suncheon Mayor Son Hun-mo, who won the June 3 local elections, has abandoned his predecessor Noh Gwan-gyu's push to attract a semiconductor fabrication factory and is instead focusing on developing the defense industry.

The shift comes after plans to bring a semiconductor complex to the eastern South Jeolla Province region fell through, with the project going to Gwangju instead — leading the city to conclude that industries suited to local conditions matter more than chasing semiconductor investment.

According to Suncheon city on Friday, Son last month reorganized the city's administrative structure, dissolving the "semiconductor team" that had been housed under the new-growth industries division and creating a new "industrial policy team" dedicated to defense companies, as part of a broader push to revitalize the local economy through defense industry recruitment.

"Posco's steelworks — the backbone of the defense industry — is right next door in Gwangyang, and the Yeosu petrochemical complex and explosives factories are close by," Son said. "With Gwangyang Port for exports, the Suncheon-Wanju Expressway, the KTX Jeolla Line and a national university, Suncheon has ideal conditions and is the best location for defense companies."

The city has set three core tasks: building a foundation for defense industry development, establishing a defense innovation cluster, and attracting anchor companies while securing designation as a specialized defense complex. The goals are aimed at strengthening local manufacturing competitiveness and creating quality jobs.

Alongside this, the city is working to enact a "Suncheon Defense Industry Promotion and Support Ordinance" to establish the institutional groundwork for supporting local companies and training specialized workers.

Once the ordinance takes effect, the city plans to form and operate a committee to ensure expertise and continuity in defense industry policy.

Next year, the city will use the ordinance as a basis to draw up a master plan for defense industry development, spelling out the specialized sectors it will focus on and the strategies for supporting businesses.

Under the master plan, the city will work with local universities, companies and research institutions to build a talent pipeline linking education to employment — pursuing tailored curricula reflecting industry demand, establishing contract-based defense industry degree programs, and linking field training with internships.

Building on this foundation, the city aims to win selection in the Defense Acquisition Program Administration's defense innovation cluster competition in 2027.

The defense innovation cluster program integrates a region's core industries with defense manufacturing, concentrating research and development, testing and evaluation, business support, and workforce training functions in one place. Its goal is to comprehensively support local companies' technology development and entry into the defense supply chain.

If selected, the city plans to spend five years working with the planned integrated Jeonnam-Gwangju special city to build a defense cluster involving companies, universities and research institutions — creating an organic defense industry ecosystem and opening a new path to replace the struggling legacy industries of eastern South Jeolla Province.

The city also plans to support local companies' technology development alongside anchor company recruitment, and to pursue a range of cooperative projects — including joint ventures between leading and local firms and commercialization linkages — to strengthen the competitiveness of local manufacturing.

The city will also seek designation as a Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy defense specialized complex in the Haeryong industrial complex and surrounding areas, drawing on a cooperative framework among anchor companies, research institutions and universities.

The specialized complex is envisioned not as a simple industrial estate but as a concentrated defense industry hub where anchor companies, partner firms, research and development agencies, testing and evaluation bodies, and business support organizations are organically linked.

"Suncheon will leverage its rail logistics network and the industrial base of the Gwangyang Bay area to build a defense industry ecosystem and nurture it as a new growth engine, leading an industrial transformation across the eastern region," Son said.


parkds@heraldcorp.com