On the 29th, Daejeon City held a vision declaration ceremony at the Daejeon Esports Stadium, containing a blueprint to become a global leader in space technology innovation in name and reality.
At the event, in order to share the vision for fostering Daejeon's space industry and solidify the cooperation system, domestic and foreign guests and companies, more than 250 officials attended, including Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo, heads of local space research institutes, University presidents, and the head of the Daejeon New Space Development Council (representative of Soletop), attended the event.
The event, which opened with a performance of ‘Future Space Story Leading to Mars’ by Yum Dong-gyun, Korea’s top drawing and metaverse artist, was implemented based on the five-year space industry development plan being established to foster Daejeon’s space industry. It culminated in the vision presentation by Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo, who introduced the strategy.
The city's plan is to provide local companies with an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities through this project to secure heritage* and use this as an opportunity to support them to grow into global anchor companies. *Heritage: Successful experience of space launches by companies.
Mayor Lee concluded his vision presentation by expressing his ambition for Daejeon to lead the landing on Mars in 2045, which is the goal of Korea's space economy roadmap, by substantively pursuing a carefully prepared strategy.
Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo stated, “Daejeon is a leading city in space technology innovation in name and reality that can realize the Republic of Korea’s space economy roadmap. In recognition of its capabilities, it was recently exempted from preliminary approval for the space industry cluster project and achieved the result of securing a total project cost of KRW 97.3 billion.” He expressed his strong will, stating, “After establishing a comprehensive plan, we will implement it with momentum and establish ourselves as a first-class space city that will lead Korea to become a space economic powerhouse”.
Meanwhile, the city plans to invest 350 billion won over five years from 2024 to achieve the vision. Along with that, KRW 97.3 billion has been secured as a budget for the space industry cluster, and project costs are planned to be raised through collaboration with local research institutes and universities, securing national funding, and bold investment of city finances.
