The Jeonbuk Center for Creative Economy and Innovation (Director Kang Young-jae, hereinafter referred to as the Jeonbuk Center) announced that Director Kang Young-jae has been appointed as the 9th Chairman of the Creative Economy and Innovation Center Council.
Director Kang Young-jae was appointed as the Chairman of the Creative Economy Innovation Center Council at the council's general meeting held on December 20th. His term will begin in January 2025. As Chairman, he will lead the startup ecosystem on behalf of the 19 Creative Economy Innovation Centers nationwide, regional startup organizations under the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.
The Creative Economy Innovation Center has been leading the creation and development of startups for the past decade, in line with the government's startup policy. Over this time, it has fostered shared growth through the establishment of regional startup ecosystems, economic revitalization, and open innovation between startups and large and medium-sized enterprises. Operating in 19 locations nationwide, the Centers offer a variety of programs, including mentoring and consulting, commercialization support, market support, investment connections, and global expansion, to foster the creation of technology companies that will become the driving force behind Korea's sustainable growth. As of 2023, 23,430 companies have been founded with support from the Centers, attracting a total of KRW 4.1575 trillion in investment and creating 64,426 jobs.
At the 10th anniversary event last year, Minister of SMEs and Startups Oh Young-joo announced, “In order to resolve the polarization of the regional startup ecosystem, we plan to focus on global expansion and diversification of open innovation under the vision slogan of ‘Deeper, Broader, Closer to the region.’”
Accordingly, Council Chairman Kang Young-jae stated, "In line with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' policy direction, we will actively support the scale-up and global expansion of startups being fostered at each innovation center through joint project planning and implementation." He also stated, "By publishing regional startup ecosystem reports, we will identify the characteristics of each region's startup ecosystem and strengthen the innovation centers' role and function as regional startup hubs." He added, "We will also strengthen the internal capabilities of the organization through employee capacity-building training and regulatory reform."
Lastly, he said, “Under the banner of ‘solidarity and cooperation,’ we plan to accelerate the scale-up of domestic startups beyond solidarity between each innovation center and through mutual cooperation rather than competition with private venture and investment organizations. Through this, we will work even harder to faithfully fulfill our role as a regional innovation and startup hub so that we can increase the possibility of creating unicorn companies in regions outside the metropolitan area.”
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