[North Gyeongsang Province]
[North Gyeongsang Province]

North Gyeongsang Province and Daegu plan to invest 10 billion won ($7.46 million) over four years through 2029 to build a cross-regional job ecosystem centered on the future mobility industry.

North Gyeongsang Province held a launch ceremony Thursday for the "Daegyeong Region Wide-Area Job-Linkage Project" at Stanford Hotel in Andong, together with the Ministry of Employment and Labor and Daegu.

The ceremony was attended by Yang Geum-hee, North Gyeongsang Province's vice governor for economic affairs, Park Gi-hwan, director of Daegu's economic bureau, and Lim Yeong-mi, director general of employment policy at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, along with officials from job-related agencies in both cities and provinces.

The project was selected through the Ministry of Employment and Labor's competitive "Wide-Area Linkage Project" program.

Designed to stem population outflows to the Greater Seoul area and build regional job ecosystems around strategic industries, the program selected three regions: the Daegyeong area, the Busan-Ulsan-South Gyeongsang region and the Chungcheong region.

The Daegyeong project will draw 8 billion won in national funding, with North Gyeongsang Province and Daegu each contributing 1 billion won, for a total of 10 billion won. The core goal is to link North Gyeongsang Province and Daegu into a single job and lifestyle zone, in line with the government's five-hub, three-special-zone strategy.

The Daegyeong area is home to 6,570 future mobility companies, accounting for 9.6 percent of the national total.

Daegu has strengths in automotive electronic components and autonomous driving software, while North Gyeongsang Province leads in vehicle body, materials and battery manufacturing — giving the two a complementary industrial base for cooperation.

The project will be carried out across three areas: administrative linkage, industrial linkage and talent linkage.

The administrative linkage component will establish a consultative body involving local governments and job-related agencies from both regions to lay the groundwork for cross-regional employment policy cooperation.

The industrial linkage component will support collaborative research and development between primary contractors and subcontractors in North Gyeongsang Province and Daegu, and will pursue improvements in production processes and workplace safety.

"We will work closely with North Gyeongsang Province, the Ministry of Employment and Labor and related agencies to strengthen corporate competitiveness and provide real, practical benefits to local workers and job seekers," Park said.

Yang said industries already move beyond administrative boundaries, and job policy must follow suit. "We will connect the industries, technology, companies and talent of North Gyeongsang Province and Daegu to give businesses greater growth opportunities and provide residents with better jobs," Yang said.


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