The Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) announced on the 27th that it has signed a business agreement with six regional cornerstone banks at its Busan headquarters to create new momentum for the local economy and expand financial support.
A total of seven institutions participated in this agreement, including KOTEC, Kyungnam Bank, Gwangju Bank, Busan Bank, IM Bank, Jeonbuk Bank, and Jeju Bank.
KOTEC and the banks plan to establish a cooperative framework to jointly discover local ventures and startups and nurture each region's representative strategic industries to lead technology-driven balanced regional growth.
In particular, support is expected to expand around key industries such as ▲Aerospace (Gyeongnam) ▲Artificial Intelligence (Gwangju) ▲Robotics and advanced components (Daegu and North Gyeongsang) ▲Maritime and ports (Busan) ▲Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology (Jeonbuk) ▲Smart tourism (Jeju) through loans (guarantees), direct and indirect investments, cooperation with local governments, and information sharing.
Last year, KOTEC supplied approximately 2.8 trillion won, accounting for 51% of its total new guarantees, to non-capital regions. It focused on fostering balanced regional growth and advanced industries by providing about 2 trillion won to emerging fields, which are future core industries.
With this agreement, KOTEC plans to expand its cooperation with the six regional cornerstone banks to support the growth of outstanding small and medium-sized enterprises with technological capabilities in the regions.
Kim Jong-ho, the chairman of KOTEC, noted, "This is an important turning point to respond to the realities of regions facing extinction and to foster future strategic industries and ventures and startups in those areas." He added, "KOTEC will continue to expand collaboration with relevant regional institutions to support technology-driven growth and take the lead in enhancing the competitiveness and balanced growth of regional strategic industries."