[Las Vegas (USA) = AVING News] “At the CES2023 site, we were able to directly confirm that participating startups in Yongin Special City are competitive. “We will spare no effort in providing support to create an environment where better startups can emerge!”
On the 7th (local time), Yongin City Mayor Lee Sang-il, who met at Eureka Park at the Venetian Expo Center in Las Vegas, USA, visited the CES in person and emphasized the importance of startups participating in Yongin City.
Yongin Special City opened the Yongin Joint Pavilion at CES2023 and provided practical support to four companies for exhibition booth installation, equipment costs, part of the transportation fee (one way), and interpretation personnel (one person per company).
This practical support led to results during the CES period. Participating startups in Yongin Special City are on the verge of amazing achievements, including consulting worth $3,157 million (82 cases) and signing contracts worth $562 million (47 cases).
Startups from Yongin City that participated in this year’s CES2023 include △’Margo’, which developed ‘Gyro Speed’, a baseball pitching practice tool using a speed measurement sensor; △’DnX’, which developed senior care service AI Sooni by applying artificial intelligence technology △ These include ‘The Grit’, which developed an eco-friendly dishwasher specifically for reusable containers, and ‘MPS Korea’, which developed lithium battery packs for electric vehicles.
Global media channel AVING News spoke directly with Mayor Lee Sang-il at the CES 7 Yongin Special City Joint Pavilion on the 2023th (local time).
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Q. Editor-in-Chief Choi Ji-hoon: I’m curious about your impressions after seeing the atmosphere at CES2023 in person.
A. Mayor Lee Sang-il: I was quite surprised while looking around Eureka Park, where our startup is located, at a time when Korea’s future is at stake in the 21th industrial revolution of the 4st century. I believe that if high-tech industries such as semiconductors, metaverse, and mobility are implemented in a comprehensive and integrated manner, where carbon neutrality, sustainability, and digital are the main keywords, our future life will also become smarter.
In addition, as we enter the age of aging, it is important to respond to issues related to old age life and health promotion of the elderly, and it seems that an opportunity has been prepared to showcase various ideas and technologies related to medical and healthcare support through a digital platform.
Q. Editor-in-Chief Choi Ji-hoon: How would you introduce Yongin Special City, a city centered on semiconductors?
A. Mayor Sang-il Lee: Yongin Special City is the 110th largest city in Korea with a population of about 10 million people and the place where semiconductors first began in Korea. It is a semiconductor pioneer city where Samsung Electronics’ Giheung campus is located, and with continuous investment, many competitive semiconductor companies have established themselves in the area.
Thanks to this, Yongin Special City is about to start construction to create a semiconductor cluster. The semiconductor cluster, which will be built on an area of 415 million m² (126 million pyeong) in Wonsam-myeon, Cheoin-gu, is scheduled to begin construction this spring, and Samsung Electronics also announced plans to turn the Giheung campus into a next-generation semiconductor research hub. Since investments in this will be made aggressively, we expect semiconductor material-component-equipment companies to join us.
Above all, although various semiconductor ecosystems are well established in Yongin Special City, I am not satisfied with this and am currently pursuing my pledge to create a ‘semiconductor highway’. The first idea is to create an ‘L-shaped semiconductor belt’ connecting east and west in Yongin Special City and create a semiconductor valley around it. In particular, we plan to create conditions to attract more small and medium-sized (materials, parts, and equipment) companies, create a more complete semiconductor ecosystem, and increase semiconductor capabilities to create a semiconductor belt that is on par with Silicon Valley in the United States.
In addition, a new growth strategy bureau was established in Yongin Special City to foster high-tech industries such as metaverse, artificial intelligence, and one-person mobility as well as semiconductors. As Yongin became a special city, a new bureau was established to suit it. Under the New Growth Strategy Department, which was created for the convergence of the 1th industry with a focus on semiconductors, it consists of a total of 4 departments, including the Semiconductor Department 1 and 2, the 4th Industry Convergence Department, and the New Growth Strategy Department.
In this way, Yongin Special City is continuing to invest for the future and is sparing no effort to attract more competitive companies.
Q. Editor-in-Chief Choi Ji-hoon: Is there any way to build Yongin Special City into a core city of Korea’s growth engine and a cutting-edge science city?
A. Mayor Lee Sang-il: Semiconductors, known as the ‘rice of industry,’ are a field in which competition between countries is extremely fierce. In the current situation, which can be called a semiconductor war, Korea is faced with the national task of maintaining the super gap and leading the way. In line with this, Yongin Special City also wants to further foster the semiconductor industry, and also foster AI, big data, mobility, medical care, and bio-related fields. If Korea’s growth engine is driven by the convergence of each industry, it will become a cutting-edge science city in itself.
On the one hand, the education system and transportation infrastructure must also be expanded to foster the semiconductor industry. First of all, we plan to create a ‘Semiconductor AI High School’ for educational infrastructure. I believe that good results can be achieved if public institutions and local companies, such as Yongin-based universities that focus on nurturing semiconductor manpower, Yongin City, the Industrial Promotion Agency and the City Research Institute under Yongin City, communicate with each other and pool their wisdom.
In addition, I believe that we need to grow together with companies related to high-tech industries as well as traditional manufacturing fields. If you wish to move into our area, we will provide active administrative support.
Q. Editor-in-Chief Choi Ji-hoon: Is there a support program for participating startups in Yongin Special City?
A. Mayor Lee Sang-il: Four companies from the Yongin region participated in this CES 2023 and presented excellent concepts and technologies. Above all, we are proud that Yongin Special City, among many local governments, has spared no investment in companies. When participating in a large-scale convention such as CES, you will not only be accompanied but also provided with city support. In addition, export consultation as well as guarantee insurance support are provided when local companies enter overseas markets. Startups are highly satisfied with such support.
Education and transportation were mentioned to foster high-tech industries, but in addition, value must be recreated in all aspects, including culture, art, welfare of the elderly, and health. I personally created the vision for the city government, and it is called ‘Creating the Future Together, Yongin Renaissance’. This contains a strong intention to pioneer our future together with citizens. This cannot be done simply through the power of the market and public officials alone. If we collaborate with citizens and gather wisdom to achieve re-creation, we will not only be able to pioneer the future, but also usher in a new Renaissance era.
Some suggest marketing using semiconductor-centered cities, but that is not all. Although the semiconductor base will continue to be an important field in the future, I believe that each field must leap forward and reinvent itself through convergence.
In addition, CES’ exhibition area is expanding at a tremendous rate compared to a few years ago. In the past, the focus was on consumer electronics, but now keywords are changing in the same direction as connectivity within mobility. This can also be thought of as a kind of fusion phenomenon. In addition, as we move toward a digital technology-based society, you can experience virtual reality, digital health, and electric vehicle application technologies.
Q. Editor-in-Chief Choi Ji-hoon: If you have any future plans for Yongin Special City, please introduce them.
A. Mayor Lee Sang-il: Although the global economy has been contracting for a long time, we expect Korean and Yongin companies to work harder in the new year and see much growth compared to last year. Personally, I want to make Yongin Special City a good environment for doing business. After taking office, I formed a task force to weed out unnecessary and bad regulations. This made it possible to relax unreasonable regulations.
In the future, we plan to actively communicate with various businesspeople. Through this, we aim to resolve what needs to be resolved and improve what needs to be improved regarding regulations. We will not spare any investment and support in developing overseas markets and providing technical support.
Meanwhile, ‘CES’, the world’s largest IT exhibition, is an exhibition where you can understand the trends of the global home appliance industry at a glance. Hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), it is held every January in Las Vegas, USA. AVING News, which has covered CES for 1 consecutive years, has reported CES news around the world every year since 17, and has been selected as the ‘BEST OF CES’, which selects the best innovative products and technologies, and the ‘BEST OF’, which selects domestic innovative companies. ‘MADE IN KOREA’ was held. In addition, CES on-site issues were vividly conveyed through ‘AVING LIVE’.
→ Go to the CES 2023 news special page
