Gyeongbuk Bio Industry Expo 2024 took place for a three-day run from Sept. 26 at Andong Sports Gymansium and Andong Culture and Art Center.
About 300 guests, including Gyeongbuk Gov. Lee Cheol-woo and Andong Mayor Kwon Ki-chang, participated in an opening ceremony.
Gyeongbuk Bio Industry Expo 2024 was committed to exploring strategies to invigorate the province’s bio industry, build a global human network among Korean and international expertise groups by offering a common platform for the development of the bio industry and targeting common growth and spreading of the bio industry through continuous participation by related organizations and businesses.
The expo, held under the theme “K-bio, Hope for Tomorrow,” featured diverse programs, such as an opening ceremony, exhibitions, companies’ negotiation sessions and conferences.
Dr. Sai Kiang Lim, an authority in the development of medicines using Mesenchymal Stem Cell-derived Exosomes, delivered a key-note speech under the theme “Challenges in Developing MSC EV-Based Therapies.”
Five institutions — Gyeongsangbuk-do, Andong City, Korea FoodTech Association and Daegu Haany University — struck an MOU for the fostering and developing of the food tech industry, calling for supporting joint study and tech development, mutual cooperation for nurturing expertise manpower, and building a network among industry, academic and research circles for the development of the food tech industry.
The conferences consisted of lectures among experts based on five subdivisions – vaccine, medicine, hemp, natural product, white bio and beauty.
During the vaccine subdivision session, Park Jin-sun, head of the Business Development Division at SK Bio Science, gave a lecture on the roles of vaccine makers under public-civilian partnerships to brace for future pandemics.
CEO Nathan Tirtana of ETANA spoke about the development of the bio tech industry among developing countries.
In the bio-medicine subdivision, Jan Lötvall, who served as the first chairman of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV), lectured on Exosomes.
Companies’ negotiations sessions took place from Sept. 26 to Sept. 27.
They featured diverse programs, such as investment rounds on companies with excellent technologies, exploring of products and service markets, and overseas market entry.
The Gyeongbuk Theme Pavilion and booths of about 60 bio-related institutions and companies showcased diverse products and technologies.
Gyeongbuk Gov. Lee Cheol-woo and Andong Mayor Kwon Ki-chang pose for a photo with other participants of the Gyeongbuk Bio Industry Expo 2024. (Photos: Gyeongbuk)
Spectators were given opportunities to have first-hand experiences, such as production of bacteriophage key holders, cosmetics and AI drawing.
Gov. Lee said, “I hope the expo will serve as an opportunity to further elevate the bio industry, a driving force behind creation of global added values, and Gyeongbuk is expected to have synergetic effects, such as job creation and invigorating of the local economy in connection with the building of the national bio-life industrial complex and Gyeongbuk bio-vaccine specialized complex.”
Meanwhile, Gyeongbuk has implemented diverse policies to nurture the bio industry.
As for the red bio sector, the province was designated as a national advanced industry strategy specialized complex and opportunity development specialized zone of the bio sector by the government in June, laying groundwork to invigorate the private sector’s investment.
In May, Gyeongbuk was designated as a cultured food regulatory sandbox zone in the bio sector, building groundwork to lead the future food industry through convergence of food tech.
The provincial government plans to nurture specialized industries according to each district, such as creation of natural product whole-cycle standardization hub and nurturing of the green bio medicine industry targeting animals.
