President Park Geun-hye vowed Monday to revitalize the ecosystem of the creative economy in South Korea through innovation centers.
Park's creative economy -- a key policy objective of Park -- calls for boosting the economy by turning creative ideas into real businesses through science and technology, and information technology.
The pledge came two weeks after the government announced a plan to link the country's conglomerate to innovation centers as part of efforts to build a creative economy.
The innovation centers in Seoul and other provinces and major cities are meant to nurture local startups and venture firms with the assistance of conglomerates.
"The government will revitalize the ecosystem of the creative economy by using creative economy innovation centers as a catalyst," Park said in the opening ceremony of an innovation center in Daegu, 300 kilometers south of Seoul.
She also vowed to ensure local innovation centers become a "garage of dreams," where people can turn their creative ideas into businesses, citing the success of Apple Inc. and other top U.S. technology companies that started out in garages.
Samsung Group, South Korea's largest family-controlled conglomerate, is linked to an innovation center in Daegu due apparently to their close relations.
What began as a small trading company in Daegu that sold groceries in 1938 is now the Samsung Group, spanning businesses that deal in electronics, engineering, insurance, clothing and an amusement park.
Samsung Group plans to select companies that have potential of generating new business opportunities in Daegu to help them make inroads into overseas markets, according to Park's office.
Samsung also said it and Daegu city will create a fund worth 20 billion won (US19.2 million) over the next five years to support promising startups and venture firms in Daegu, according to the office.
The innovation center in Daegu "will be a place where anyone can challenge and succeed with creativity and ideas without fearing" failure, Park said.
A business failure carries a social stigma in South Korea, one of the factors that critics say discourages promising people to take risks and start their own businesses. (Yonhap)
