[Interview] Launch of 17 Creative Economy Innovative Centers are set to be complete
[Interview] Launch of 17 Creative Economy Innovative Centers are set to be complete
  • By Monica Youn-soo Chung (monica@koreaittimes.com)
  • 승인 2015.05.12 19:02
  • 댓글 0
이 기사를 공유합니다

Choi Yang-hee, minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning

Creative Economy Innovation Center that will be established in 17 provinces and cities across the country by first half of this year, serves as offline platform to flesh out the vision of a creative economy that results from combination of creative ideas, individuals and resources.

The center provides one stop service to commercialize business ideas and facilitates a space for creating regional cooperative model in such that any individual or entity with ideas may obtain mentoring support from the innovation center for development of their ideas. In addition, open innovation lab and collaborative space enables SMEs to explore market and niche market. Patent valorization may be adopted through the short-term form of sleeping patents owned by funded research center, or university, and firm.

Choi Yang-hee, minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning explained that “One of the latest economic and social trends is integration of on-line and offline service and creating new values by breaking the walls and bridging the gap between the two. On September, 2013, the government first opened the Online Creative Economy Town.

On September of last year, the government prepared measures for integration of both platforms as Creative Economy Innovation Center was officially launched in cooperation with major firms. Since the Creative Economy town is online source, its limits may be compensated by the Creative Economy Innovation Center and reversely the ideas consolidated at the Creative Economy Innovation Center may be linked to mentors of the Creative Economy Town. The integration and development of the Online and Offline Media Platforms will be complete by first half of this year."

The Future Planning department stated that Creative Economy and Innovation Center will house an ecosystem for early startups as a base for regional innovation and creation of new business and market opportunities in order to yield synergy effect across the online space ‘Creation Economy Town’ platform.

Realization of creative economy by the government is the most significant key aspect to be dealt in the midst of a stagnant economy triggered by factors such as slow growth, youth unemployment, and population aging. Minister Choi revealed that “We will drive initiatives for innovative growth in this year to proactively support the economic reform so that this year may be accounted as the year for R&D innovation”. It may be difficult to achieve tangible results in performance based on the creative economy overnight. However, it is imperative for the government to make ways so that creative ideas may turn into commercially viable businesses that add to national riches.

Minister Choi said “we will implement the key features of Creative Economy and Innovation Center as a measure to expand the creative economy and create an ecosystem for industries and ecosystem of finance to complete in launching the Creative Economy and Innovation Center in each region by the first half of this year with a vision to transform the Korea's economy into a dynamic creative economy. In order push ahead with key businesses, we will provide full one stop service to commercialize ideas through the collaboration with various entities.

In order to overcome the death valley of startup firms, we plan to accelerate their market entries by means of providing the necessities such as R&D support, office areas, and loans in conjunction with public TV home shopping service. Moreover, in order to build an ecosystem for early startups, we plan to expand investment funds, introduce mid and small sized securities firms specializing in M&A, expand the exemption of joint surety, establish ‘Fintech Service Center’ in cooperation with related entities and will make efforts in fostering the related security industries."

Development of Specialized Creative Economy Valley in Pan-kyo city.

A specialized Creative Economy Valley will be developed in Pan-kyo city in addition to Creative Economy and Innovation Center. “Pan-kyo city provides wider options for sourcing qualified manpower, offers good accessibility to the market, and is accommodated by successful venture firms. Hence, the city is equipped with the most favorable conditions for nurturing startup businesses in terms of knowledge diffusion and M&A.

On top of it, we are pushing forward with "Creative Economy Valley" that develops the Pan-kyo city into innovative and creation Hub by reinforcing the advanced business infrastructure such as startup support, industries, universities, and government supported research institutes, and internet of things. In order to improve domiciliation conditions for Pankyo city as mentioned earlier, we plan to develop the 2nd Pan-kyo Techno Valley in nearby areas in order to expand the urban residential areas such as studio flats & residential apartments and education, cultural and community centers.” as stressed by Minister Choi

Successful Case Studies of Creative Economy

The latest no.1 Research lab firm "Kolmar BNH" has made an remarkable achievement by being Kosdaq-listed. The firm broke the net profit of 1 trillion KRW mark in the market cap in 10 years of time after its establishment. The firm has exported the products to countries such as US, Japan, and Canada and achieved “Top export of 5 million USD” in year 2013. In addition, the “wearable charger using body temperature” of Dr. Cho Byeon-jin, Professor team of KAIST, benefited by Dae-jeon Creative Economy and innovation Center, has been chosen as the no.1 out of top 10 emerging technologies, thereby yielding results in performance.

The “wearable charger” of Dr. Cho professor's team can supply power to the device semi-permanently without having the need for a battery. Hence, this has been accepted as the technology that may solve power related problems in devices.

Other than that, there are various cases such as NanoLambda Korea that is preparing to advance into US market as they have been awarded in “Dream Venture Star” competition as hosted by Dae-jeon Creative Economy and Innovation Center, Sue House Co., Ltd that is preparing to launch products by the end of this year as they have been awarded in “C-lab competition” as hosted by Dae-ku Creative Economy and Innovation Center. Moreover, various successful cases studies are being produced even through the online Innovative Economy Town. In which, the “Face encoding security device” as developed by “Five GT” is showing constant growth pattern in terms of achieving 100 million KRW mark on February of this year that was 5 months after the products were being launched.

Establishment of “Government R&D Innovative Measures”

R&D investments are being made relatively higher than the global standards in which the results are not satisfactory in performance. As a measure of improvement, the government is preparing to devise “Government R&D Innovative Scheme” to revolutionize the R&D structure.

Minister Choi explained that “ The key aspects of the innovative plan is consumer centered innovative research. We will reinforce the R&D plan and strategy by incorporating the market needs, allocate the 10% of new budget for further technical development and continue to expand the budget of government R&D budget for technical commercialization with 625.4 zillion KRW by year 2015. In addition, we will revolutionize the structure from “task based winning and competition” into “distinctive task and industrial growth competition”.

In addition, we will strengthen our support for mid to small and midsized forms by means of operating family entity and corporate subsidiary research center and reorganize the SME R&D evaluation system in terms of evaluating on the commercial viability of the business upon selecting and evaluating the task.”

On one side, the ICT has closed down evaluation system that is based on number of SCI theory cases and established 5 year mid and long term R&D strategy to systematically allocate and moderate the government R&D budget. Although we are making worlds no.1 investments in terms of No.1 R&D investment rate (as of year 2013 4.15%) in relative to GDP. However, we are still in lack of producing economic values in terms of level of results in performance and commercialization of technology. We are preparing to establish innovative measures to complement this areas in cooperation with the related departments.

Establishment of “Science Technology Community Complex”

The government will make investment of 25 billion KRW on establishment of “Science Technology Community Complex”. The government will invest 10 billion KRW and Kofst will invest 15 billion KRW on community complex to make arrangements for academic conference hall, international conference hall, and academic and office space in order provide place for knowledge diffusion between science technicians and community and sports centers will be built to improve welfare of scientist technicians.

The profits generated from science technology community complex will be re-invested to public service centers in order to reduce the benefactor's burden and so that science technicians may obtain various benefits, thus ensuring the impartiality of the business. The community complex will be narrowed into public service and intermediate public service and the center will be classified by facility and different measures will be applied to reduce financial burden so that the center may provide various community service that is equipped with academic cultural and convenient facilities.

On the other hand, Minister Choi stated that he is working on measures to improve the science technology training system to foster science technicians.

By Monica Youn-soo Chung


댓글삭제
삭제한 댓글은 다시 복구할 수 없습니다.
그래도 삭제하시겠습니까?
댓글 0
댓글쓰기
계정을 선택하시면 로그인·계정인증을 통해
댓글을 남기실 수 있습니다.

  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT US
  • SIGN UP MEMBERSHIP
  • RSS
  • 2-D 678, National Assembly-daero, 36-gil, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, Korea (Postal code: 07257)
  • URL: www.koreaittimes.com | Editorial Div: 82-2-578- 0434 / 82-10-2442-9446 | North America Dept: 070-7008-0005 | Email: info@koreaittimes.com
  • Publisher and Editor in Chief: Monica Younsoo Chung | Chief Editorial Writer: Hyoung Joong Kim | Editor: Yeon Jin Jung
  • Juvenile Protection Manager: Choul Woong Yeon
  • Masthead: Korea IT Times. Copyright(C) Korea IT Times, All rights reserved.
ND소프트