KICOX President & CEO Kang Nam-hoon.

Korea Industrial Complex Corp. (KICOX) is hitting the accelerator to transform old industrial complexes into innovative ones.

KICOX President & CEO Kang Nam-hoon said one of his corporation’s foremost tasks is about turning industrial complexes into industry-campus convergence zones in which campuses and corporate research institutes co-exist. 

KICOX has been building production innovation centers at four industrial complexes. KICOX is striving to transform industrial complexes into so-called convergence clusters in which co-exist with corporate support, culture and workers’ welfare facilities. 

A pilot project to build a convergence cluster will be implemented at the Changwon Industrial Complex, and will be expanded to other parts of the nation, he said. 

KICOX, marking the 52nd anniversary this year, should attach priority on technology, KICOX President Kang said. KICOX plans to expand the number of the conventional mini-industry-academia-research institute clusters to 100. Kang said he lends an ear to voices of the field in a bottom-up format, on top of the use of technologies developed by schools. 

The Changwon and Banwol/Sihwa industrial complexes are transforming old-style plants into “smart factories.” The process involves the laying of LTE networks for industrial complexes and converting plants into crowd-based factories, he said. 

Meanwhile, KICOX received an “A grade,” the best ever, in the 2015 government evaluation on business performances of public entities. The corporation’s excellent grade is owed to KICOX’s restructuring of business portfolios based on performance, which led to the materialization of management efficiency.

KICOX saw sales-per-head in work efficiency and the financing and budget management sector rise from 340 million in 2013 to 450 million won in 2014 and 680 million won in 2015. 

The corporation was put on a list of excellent public entities in an evaluation of the Government 3.0 Initiative. KICOX has been credited with strengthening the competitiveness of industrial complexes and improving corporate services by offering services tailored to meet customers’ needs and innovating the way the corporation is run, based on core values of the Government 3.0 Initiative openness, sharing, communication and cooperation. 

KICOX won the presidential award, making it one of the top organizations in an evaluation of shared growth with SMEs in recognition of implementing a virtuous-cycle business structure by expanding corporate support centers around the country. 

KICOX contributed to boosting regional economies by distributing a combined 1.52 million sq. meters of industrial sites, the largest-ever, creating new investments worth about 10 trillion won through regulatory reform. It also grabbed the top grade in an evaluation of state-funded R&D businesses. 

The corporation realized a co-existence culture with labor by introducing a wage peak system and merit-based annual wage system ahead of other public entities. 

“We’ll make all-out efforts to strengthen competitiveness of industrial complexes and tenant companies and grow the corporation into one with competitive edge by keeping on raising management efficiency and concentrating its capacity without resting on 2015 business performances,” KICOX President Kang said.

KICOX headquarters in Daegu.(Photos: KICOX)