Industry ministry picks three industrial complexes for revitalization

The industry ministry said Tuesday it selected the Jeju Advanced Science Complex, the Wanju Industrial Complex in North Jeolla Province and the Munmak Industrial Complex in Gangwon Province as candidate sites for a national revitalization project. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport jointly held a committee meeting on Sept. 22 to designate the three locations.

The initiative targets manufacturing zones operating for more than 20 years. Eight central government agencies will coordinate with local authorities to support artificial intelligence transformation, green transition efforts and improvements to living conditions.

Each candidate region submitted specific plans to upgrade their industrial ecosystems. The Jeju site plans to build a smart green complex based on distributed energy and clean resources, focusing on creating an RE100 innovation hub and advancing the clean bio-health industry.

The Wanju complex intends to foster a key hub for advanced robotics and mobility manufacturing, centering its proposal on an AI factory robot demonstration project.

In Gangwon Province, the Munmak site plans to construct and upgrade smart factories alongside a training center for medical AI and semiconductor specialists.

Government officials will refine these business plans through expert consulting before officially designating the competitiveness enhancement zones in the first quarter of next year. The ministries also pledged to work with local governments to secure budgets for the core projects.

Kim Gyu-seong, the industry ministry's director-general for regional economic policy, emphasized the strategic importance of the effort. "For the government's balanced growth strategy to succeed, aging industrial complexes must re-emerge as centers of advanced industry capable of realizing the five hubs and three special zones growth engines," he said.