Experts from academia, industry, research institutes and government agencies gathered to explore future growth engines for the South Jeolla-Gwangju region. These include the 800 trillion won ($597 billion) Honam semiconductor cluster, the AI industry and self-driving cars.
The Gwangju-South Jeolla Venture Enterprises Association and the Gwangju Industry-Academia Convergence Institute said Wednesday that they had held the second Leaders Forum for the Gwangju Self-Driving Car Parts Specialized Complex. The event ran alongside the 26th South Jeolla-Gwangju Venture Forum.
The forum was held Tuesday in the fourth-floor grand ballroom of the Beuribeu Gwangju by Lotte Hotel. The event carries added significance as the first held under its new name, the South Jeolla-Gwangju Venture Forum. It follows the renaming from the previous Gwangju-South Jeolla Venture Forum, prompted by the launch of the South Jeolla-Gwangju special metropolitan city on July 1. The Venture Business Association and the Gwangju Information & Culture Industry Promotion Agency co-hosted the event. It drew about 80 participants, including small business and venture company officials and heads of related institutions and organizations from South Jeolla and Gwangju.
Attendees on Tuesday included Kim Hyun-soo, chairman of the association, and Kim Ma-seong, division chief at the Gwangju & South Jeolla Regional Small and Medium Business Administration. Also attending were Kim Tae-joo, head of the Honam regional headquarters of the Korea Technology Finance Corporation, and Yoo Seung-hyuk, team leader at the Gwangju Industry-Academia Convergence Institute. Also present were Yoon Bong-sik, director of the AI Demonstration Center at Nambu University, and Lee Seong-woo, head of the Gwangju startup branch of the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund. Park Seung-min, head of the Gwangju branch of the Korea Invention Promotion Association, and Kim Jae-cheol, head of the Southwest Investment Center at the Korea Development Bank, rounded it out.
The event was held under the theme "800 Trillion Won, AI Agents, and Five Years for South Jeolla-Gwangju's Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises." Kim Joon-ha, dean of the Graduate School of AI Policy and Strategy at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, delivered a keynote lecture.
Kim examined the substance of the southwestern semiconductor megaproject. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix plan to invest a total of 800 trillion won to build four advanced memory chip fabs on the site of the former Gwangju military airport. He also assessed the current state of the local industrial ecosystem. Using McKinsey's Three Horizons framework, he presented a detailed road map of what regional small and medium-sized enterprises and startups should prepare for over the next five years.
Hong Seok-jae, head of the external cooperation team at the venture company certification body, also gave a briefing on the venture company certification system.
Hong explained the purpose of the certification system, recent regulatory changes, requirements by certification type, the application and review process, and the tax, financial, workforce and market-access support benefits available to certified companies.
"Renaming the forum along with the launch of the South Jeolla-Gwangju special metropolitan city signifies that the local venture ecosystem stands at the starting line of a new leap forward," Kim Hyun-soo said. "This became a meaningful occasion for local small businesses and venture companies to develop practical preparation strategies."
sij@heraldcorp.com
