CHEONGJU — North Chungcheong Province said it will lead a leap forward for South Korea's bio industry through what it calls a "Chungbuk bio transformation."
The province held a ceremony declaring its bio future vision at the provincial government's main conference room on the 9th, attended by officials from industry, academia, research institutes, hospitals and government, and announced the "Chungbuk NEXT Bio Industry Strategy" to guide the region's bio sector over the next 30 years.
The strategy calls for adding research and development, emerging technologies, talent, startup activity and investment capacity to the province's existing manufacturing base.
Under the vision of "completing a global bio industry innovation hub," the province plans to invest a combined 3.1062 trillion won ($2.2 billion) across three strategies, nine core tasks and 89 projects: securing NEXT bio competitiveness, building a virtuous-cycle innovation platform and creating a sustainable growth ecosystem. It has set targets of 30,000 jobs and 4.4 trillion won in induced production.
The province will first add artificial intelligence and advanced bio R&D to its manufacturing strengths and build a bio R&D innovation axis connecting Osong and Ochang. In Osong, it will establish an AI bio data center specializing in antibody drugs and strengthen the research and commercialization base for next-generation biopharmaceuticals, including a gene and cell therapy R&BD demonstration center and an AI-based platform supporting next-generation toxicity prediction assessment.
The province will also seek to attract national research centers, including a preclinical support center specializing in the brain industry and an aging research institute, and upgrade existing core industries such as biopharmaceutical materials, parts and equipment, medical devices, natural products and cosmetics. It plans to identify bio convergence projects linking the Korea Saebit Accelerator in Ochang with the Osong bio cluster to raise the province's bio R&D competitiveness.
The province will also create a world-class R&D innovation base, connect research results to startups, investment and commercialization, and spread the gains made in Osong to all 11 cities and counties.
Centered on K-Bio Square in the third Osong industrial complex, the province plans to link the KAIST Osong Biomedical Campus and a Seoul National University Hospital R&D clinical research hospital to build a world-class bio R&D innovation base clustering universities, hospitals, research institutes and companies.
The province will build a growth ladder running from R&D to startups, investment, commercialization and overseas expansion by linking programs including "Chungbuk Bio Open Innovation," which connects anchor companies in the province with startups; efforts to attract the global bio incubator BioLabs; "Chungbuk Rising Star," which concentrates support on promising companies through proactive administration; and a bio fund.
The gains accumulated in the bio industry around Osong will be expanded to all 11 cities and counties. The province plans to link Cheongju, Jincheon, Eumseong and Chungju as a red bio axis centered on biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and cosmetics, and Jecheon, Danyang, Goesan, Jeungpyeong, Boeun, Okcheon and Yeongdong as a green bio axis centered on natural products, functional foods and forest bio resources, developing the entire province as a single bio "One-Cluster."
The province will also nurture industry-tailored talent, promote corporate investment and expand a sustainable foundation for bio growth through cooperation among industry, academia, research institutes, hospitals and government.
It plans to make active use of newly built education infrastructure, including a training center for biopharmaceutical specialists and a K-beauty academy, and to systematically cultivate future talent in AI and advanced bio as well as specialists tailored to industrial sites through shared universities and agreement-based specialized high schools.
To expand corporate investment, the province will push for designation as a bio mega special zone and strengthen cooperation with industry, academia, research institutes, hospitals and government as well as with state health and medical institutions clustered in Osong, centered on the Chungbuk Bio Industry Council and the Chungbuk Bio Innovation Institutions Council. Through this, it aims to build a growth system in which the private sector leads innovation while the province provides support through talent, infrastructure, investment and institutional measures.
"If the past 30 years were a time of building the industrial foundation of Chungbuk's bio sector around Osong, the next 30 years will be a time of leading a great leap forward for South Korea's bio industry through the Chungbuk bio transformation," Governor Shin Yong-han said. "We will complete Chungbuk as a global bio industry innovation hub that will lead the future of South Korea's bio sector."
