POCHEON — The city of Pocheon in Gyeonggi Province is deepening its partnership with the Gyeonggi Defense Venture Center to help local small and venture businesses break into the defense industry.
Pocheon officials attended a signing ceremony and roundtable for second-half partner companies hosted by the center at Daejin University on the 9th, where they discussed ways to work together. The event drew officials from the city, Gyeonggi Province, Daejin University and the Korea Research Institute for Defense Technology Planning and Advancement, along with representatives of the companies selected as partners.
Participants presented their technologies and discussed how they could be applied in defense. They also exchanged views on technology exchange and paths to commercialization.
The Gyeonggi Defense Venture Center, which opened in February, selected 38 partner companies in the first half of the year and added 33 more in the second half. That brings the total to 71 companies in its first year of operation, as the center works to broaden the base of the province's defense industry and build up a regional defense ecosystem.
"The participation of small and venture businesses with strong technology and innovative ideas is a key driver in building new competitiveness for our defense industry," said Kim Tae-seok, director general of Pocheon's urban strategy bureau. "Building on the testing infrastructure unique to Pocheon, we will work closely with the Gyeonggi Defense Venture Center so that everything from corporate technology development to linking up with military demand, commercialization and market expansion connects seamlessly."
The city also created an Advanced Defense Industry Division in a reorganization this month. Pocheon has made fostering a K-AI advanced defense industry a core policy priority, aiming to develop the city into a domestic hub for advanced defense manufacturing.
