KICOX Chairman Hwang Kyu-yeon said the anniversary event will serve as an opportunity to share innovative growth of industrial complexes and future vision on job growth, and (the KICOX) will make companywide efforts to help industrial complex spearhead Korea’s innovative growth.

Executive Director Yoon Ki-don of Korea Energy Information Culture Agency (KEIA). (Photos: KEIA)

Korea Industrial Complex Corp. (KICOK) held the “2018 Industrial Complex Businessmen’s Day” in cooperation with the Federation of Korean Industrial Complexes Employers Association at COEX in Seoul on Oct. 23.

A total of 117 employers and employees were presented with diverse government prizes in recognition of their contribution to the development of industries.

The coveted Order of Industrial Service Merit, Bronze Tower went to President Ko Chang-hee of Daea Industrial while President Lee Gye-woo of Aquapick and President Yom Young-ju of Taeho were honored with the Presidential Award.

President Shim Sung-wong of Jaewon Industrial and President Roh Byung-mo of Hyupshin Hydraulic received the Prime Minister’s Prize.

The prize winners pledged to spearhead innovation and leap forward of industrial complexes to lead job creation and industry & technology growth.

The pledge may be construed as state-run industrial complexes’ determination to be reborn as a force of innovative growth through industrialization and job creation, promote industry and technology innovation and achieve innovative take-off through innovation of industrial complexes.

The predecessor of the current Seoul Digital Industrial Complex or known as G Valley, made its debut in 1064. The number of state-run industrial complexes has grown to 1,194 as of the Q2 2018. They accommodate 97, 284 tenant companies, which employ a combined 2.16 million people, serving as a buttress of the national and regional economies.

The industrial complexes now account for 69 percent of domestic production, 81 percent of the nation’s total exports and 47 percent of total employees.

But industrial complexes are grappling with the sluggish domestic mainstay industries, the weakening of added values of manufacturing industries, their deterioration and personnel mismatches and they are feared to lose growth momentum, so they now need to shift into a space for new innovation.

The anniversary event also coincided with a conference on industrial complexes held under the theme “Industry & Technology Innovation and Innovation of Industrial Sites.”

The conference covered topics such as the direction of new industrial complex clusters designed to promote national innovation growth, establishment of smart industrial complexes, the direction of industrial complexes’ changes and tasks to realize innovative growth, balanced development forcing industrial complexes, and ways of promoting balanced development centering around industrial complexes and regional innovation.

Chairman Kim Ki-won of the Federation of Korean Industrial Complexes Employers Association said, CEOs of tenant companies spare no efforts and challenges in realizing industry and technology innovation to help industrial complexes become a force behind Korea’s innovative growth.

Tenant company businessmen will pledge their determination to fulfill their responsibilities of the times and share desires for innovation together with industry, academia and research circles by holding the 2018 Industrial Complex Businessmen’s Day.