The South Korean government is developing a regional growth engine plan to implement its 5 poles 3 special regional growth strategy.
On July 22, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held a 'Growth Engine Development Plan Working Council' at the Government Sejong Center, attended by local governments. The council aimed to explain guidelines for quickly establishing and implementing the growth engine development plan and to gather feedback.
The guidelines for drafting the growth engine development plan serve as practical instructions for local governments to create a comprehensive long-term development plan in collaboration with anchor companies after selecting growth engines. The plan will include strategies for attracting anchor company investments, visions for growth engine development, and detailed tasks to promote investment and growth.
In the future, the ministry plans to pursue the signing of ultra-regional special agreements involving the central government, local governments, anchor companies, and regional innovation organizations based on this plan.
On the same day, the ministry also introduced a seven-point policy support package and the Mega Special Zone Act as part of the government's support policy direction. The government plans to provide tailored support for major corporate investment projects in each region through a package of policies covering finance, taxation, regulation, technology, talent, and infrastructure. Additionally, it will utilize the Mega Special Zone system to offer exceptional regulatory benefits linked to large-scale investments, such as growth engines.
This working council signifies that the 5 poles 3 special strategy is moving beyond the slogan stage to the phase of establishing regional action plans. While previous regional balanced development policies have focused on infrastructure development and budget allocation, this initiative aims to directly connect anchor company investments with regional growth engines, fostering industrial projects. The key will be how well the growth engines proposed by local governments align with actual corporate investments.
The ministry stated, 'Based on the discussions from the council, we will promptly finalize the guidelines for drafting the growth engine development plan and will regularly operate central-local working councils to expedite the implementation of local-led growth policies.'
* This article has been translated by AI.
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