President Moon Jae-in and Jeollanam-do Gov. Kim Yung-rok participate in a ceremony to sign an MOU to build the world’s largest off-shore wind power complex at the Imja No. 2 Bridge in Shinan, Jeollanam-do, on Feb. 2.

Gov. Kim Yung-rok of South Jeolla Province. (Photos: Jeollanam-do Provincial Govt.)

The Jeollanam-do provincial government will make its utmost to realize a “Jeonam-style New Deal” through a blue economy with a focus on clean resources such as wind and solar in keeping with these global trends, Gov. Kim Yung-rok said. He made the remarks while delivering his New Year’s message.

“This year, I will attach top priority to protecting provincial residents from COVID-19 pandemic, and I will devote myself to having them return to normal daily life and recovering the struggling regional economy,” he said.

Gov. Kim said, “Many challenges and changes are required at the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, and converting to a low-carbon society to respect human beings and values of life and cope with climate change will be accelerated at a rapid pace.”

Jeollanam-do will declare this year as the first to realize carbon neutrality by 2050 and implement a renewable energy project for energy universal basic income, he said.

The provincial government will try to attract an extremely powerful laser center to build super large-sized science technology infrastructure, Gov. Kim said.

He said Jeonnam will try to jointly implement a “human health care project” in cooperation with Gwangju and Jeollabuk-do, while seeking to attract a multi-purpose advanced medical complex to lead the global immunology market in connection with a national innovation platform for immunology treatment.

Jeonnam will nurture the farming and fishery industries into convergence sectors and value-added export industries, given the trend that the portion of the farming and fishery industries is getting bigger in a perspective of the life industry and food security.

Jeonam to Implement Its Version of New Deal in Earnest

Jeollanam-do will implement the Jeonnam-style New Deal in earnest following an 8.2 GW off-shore wind power farm project. The provincial government held an event on the “New Deal Tour No. 1” designed to ensure regional balance.

The Jeonnam-style New Deal is the provincial government’s growth strategy to employ the technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Jeollanam-do announced the “Green New Deal,” “Digital New Deal” and “Human New Deal” based on renewal energy and hydrogen resources the province boasts of and strategies to implement them and 11 strategies to implement them and 162 action tasks on Feb. 8.

The Green New Deal involves a 12.4GW renewable energy project, the biggest-ever one. The provincial government aims to realize carbon neutrality by 2050 by capitalizing on the province’s rich energy resources such as wind power and solar power.

The provincial government launched off-shore wind power projects with the goal of becoming the world’s top five off-shore wind power center. Jeollanam-do will build off-shore wind power farms with a combined capacity of 8.2GW in a 30 km-long coastal area off Imja Island in Shinan, Jeollanam-do, on stages, which will cost a combined 48.5 trillion won.

The combined power generation capacity is an equivalent to that of eight nuclear power units. The provincial government plans to build an industrialization support center and nurture related raw material and equipment industries.

To this end, Hanwha E&C and Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction decided to pour a combined 2.5 trillion won.