Gwangju seeks to become a hub for eco-friendly vehicles

The southwestern city of Gwangju, the second largest auto-producing city, is aiming to become a hub for the domestic green car industry as part of the new growth engine which would also create more jobs, the city’s mayor said. 

Mayor Yoon Jang-hyun of Gwangju Metropolitan City, which produces over 620,000 automobiles per year at the Kia Motors plants, said in an interview with The Korea Herald that by 2021 the city will put 303 billion won ($238 million) toward building a cluster for green automobile parts suppliers in the region to help research and develop them.

“The new car industry is swiftly moving towards electrics, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving. So too is the city of Gwangju to become a leading city in the industry, coupled with its technology in autonomous driving and the AI,” Yoon said.

“I believe the technology in the AI and robots is a key in the ‘fourth industrial revolution,’ so it is important to build networks with global communities to share and further develop it,” Yoon added.

Kia Motors plant here is responsible for nearly 40 percent of the local economic activities along with 20 percent of employment, according to Yoon

Amid a sluggish economy, the city also makes broad efforts among labor, management and government to create better jobs in the region, establishing a committee to attract companies to stay in.

“Unfortunately, we are experiencing a new norm of low unemployment -- that is economic growth without job creation,” Yoon said. “We are working toward finding a solution to reach a wage deal among the three parties and create more jobs and bring more investment. With such efforts, Chinese auto maker Mahindra and manufacturer and distributor of medical products Medline agreed to provide investment here, while multinational company General Electric will be setting up a joint corporation in partnership with the Korean Electric Power Corporation,” Yoon said.

Along with job creation efforts, Yoon said Gwangju became the first metropolitan city to transform contract jobs to permanent ones in the public sector. A total of 859 janitorial and security staff whose jobs were temporary became regular workers, Yoon added.

The mayor who went through surgery for gastric cancer in 2015 said this year would mark 1,000 years since the name Jeolla Province -- where Gwangju is located at -- was created during the Goryeo Dynasty.

“Jeolla Province has been at the forefront of showing collaborative efforts to defend the country whenever it has been in danger over the past 1,000 years of history,” Yoon said.

“Its tradition will be an engine to shape the future,” Yoon added.

By Bak Se-hwan and Park Dae-seong (sh@heraldcorp.com) (parkds@heraldcorp.com)