Korea SMEs and Startups Agency (KOSME) said on the 24th that it signed a "business agreement to restore the secondary battery value chain in North Chungcheong Province" at Chungbuk Health & Science University in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, with Chungbuk Health & Science University and the Chungbuk Federation of Converged SMEs.
The agreement was pursued to ease labor shortages at secondary battery corporations in North Chungcheong Province and support value chain recovery amid uncertainty in the global supply chain of the secondary battery industry due to U.S.-China trade tensions. Through this, it plans to support a leap forward as a key hub across the secondary battery industry, including production, exports, research, and talent development.
Key areas of cooperation include operating joint industry-academia-government programs to restore the secondary battery value chain, on-site internships and experiences linked with outstanding local small and midsize corporations, opening education and research facilities owned by each institution, and strengthening hiring linkages in the region.
In particular, KOSME plans to promote support that spans from startups to job matching, including the Youth Startup Academy, the Corporate Workforce Difficulty Center, and K-Work, an exclusive job-matching platform for international students. Chungbuk Health & Science University will strengthen practical training centered on its boot camp project group to cultivate talent tailored to corporations, and the Chungbuk Convergence Federation plans to focus on on-site experiences at secondary battery small and midsize corporations and workforce recruitment.
Park Jang-hyeok, KOSME's executive director for global growth, said, "With this agreement as a starting point, we expect to further strengthen the ecosystem of the secondary battery industry, the region's flagship business, and make it a turning point that leads corporations to a new leap forward," adding, "We will spare no support so it can take root as a model case of industry-academia-government cooperation."