Korea Startup Forum (KOSPO) said on the 15th that it held an on-site policy roundtable for creating "Icheon Valley" at the Icheon Youth Life and Culture Center with the office of National Assembly member Song Seok-jun.
The roundtable was arranged as a follow-up to the on-site meeting in Pangyo Valley. It focused on detailing plans to attract startups and build an ecosystem by leveraging the base of strategic industries such as semiconductors and defense. Attendees included lawmaker Song Seok-jun; Kim Jae-won, KOSPO chair; Choi Ji-young, KOSPO CEO; as well as startup representatives and Icheon city officials.
Participants discussed ▲ attracting advanced-industry startups linked to regional industrial infrastructure such as SK hynix ▲ building a test bed for technology demonstration and reviewing designation as a special zone ▲ strategies to create Icheon Valley.
Song said, "I am convinced an era will come when Korea leads the world's advanced industries," adding, "To achieve this, we need new spaces, the fusion of ideas, and infrastructure."
Through a presentation titled "Key policy proposals for creating Icheon Valley," KOSPO CEO Choi Ji-young compared Icheon to Eindhoven in the Netherlands, Europe's top innovation cluster, and noted, "The conditions are already in place."
Eindhoven has built an innovation ecosystem centered on major corporations such as ASML, Philips, and NXP, encompassing 300 corporations and 12,000 researchers. Icheon, too—with SK hynix; the nation's largest logistics hub including Coupang, CJ Logistics, and Lotte Global Logistics; and the Army Information School at its center—has been assessed as well-suited to build an "artificial intelligence (AI) demonstration industrial city" where startups in semiconductors, agriculture, and other fields can validate their technologies in industrial settings and grow.
A KOSPO official said, "Icheon is a city that simultaneously has semiconductor infrastructure centered on SK hynix and potential for growth in the defense sector," adding, "The core of the Icheon Valley concept is building an ecosystem where startups can be organically connected with this infrastructure."