A week before the World Korean Business Conference...What is Jeonbuk's preparation status?

■ Host: Lee Yeo-jin, anchor Jang Won-seok
■ Starring: Kim Kwan-young, Governor of Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN News PLUS] when quoting.

[Anchor]
The World Korean Business Conference, a big feast for Korean businessmen living all over the world, will be held in Jeonbuk this month. Until last year, it was held under the name of the World Korean Festival. The name has been changed and the scale has grown since this year. I invited Kim Kwan-young, governor of Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province, to YTN Studio, which is preparing for the competition. Please come in. Now it's not Jeollabuk-do, it's Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province. Can you explain a little about the World Korean Business Conference?

[Kwan Young Kim]
Founded in 2002, it is an opportunity for Korean businessmen from 170 countries around the world to gather in Korea once a year to network and exchange with domestic businessmen. For the past 20 years, it has been held under the name of the World Korean Congress. However, since two years ago, the name was changed to the World Korean Business Conference and the Overseas Korean Office was established last year, the scale of the World Korean Business Conference has become larger. In particular, from Jeonbuk's point of view, we left the name of Jeollabuk-do in January this year and started anew to Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province, and I think it is even more meaningful to hold the World Korean Business Conference in the first year when the special autonomy was launched.

[Anchor]
It's a big international event where Korean businessmen from all over the world gather. In particular, please explain what Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province focused on this time.

[Kwan Young Kim]
People from all over the world have gone around each province in Korea and this is the 22nd time, and this is the first time for Jeonbuk. In other words, someone from another country didn't have the opportunity to come to Jeonbuk.

Taking this opportunity, we want to provide new business opportunities by directly checking the potential of Jeonbuk and the site of Saemangeum, which has been growing significantly recently, and it is quite difficult for companies in Jeollabuk-do to export overseas because there are many small and medium-sized companies. Since there are many opportunities for many businessmen coming from overseas to consult on exports and reach a point of contact with companies in Jeollabuk-do, companies based in Jeollabuk-do think that it will have the effect of expanding their territory around the world and focusing on that.

[Anchor]
You said earlier that the scale of the event has grown, how many people will participate?

[Kwan Young Kim]
About 1,000 Korean businessmen from 170 countries around the world come. 2,000 domestic businessmen and about 3,000 purely businessmen will gather, and for two nights and three days. Also, we have 320 exhibition booths. In the exhibition booth, so many companies create exhibition booths that promote their companies, and I expect more than 100,000 people to see them.

[Anchor]
But I heard that the venue of the event is not a convention, but Chonbuk National University? There's never been an event like this at a university, right?

[Kwan Young Kim]
Unfortunately, Jeonbuk had five-star hotels and large conventions as basic conditions for holding them in the past, so we couldn't hold them because we didn't have such facilities. However, I changed my mind and went around a lot of 5-star businessmen overseas, so why don't you experience hanok in Jeonbuk? And if you taste the essence of hanbok, Korean food, and K-culture in Jeollabuk-do's Hanok Village, we will prepare an event where people abroad can feel the warm arms of their hometowns and the culture and arms of their home countries. As a result of our persuasion, we beat other competition sites with difficulty and became the venue. So, since Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, is the best place to preserve the K Culture, we use various facilities, performance facilities, gyms, and grand stadiums in Chonbuk National University instead of conventions. I've actually been there several times, and there are many advantages to the cozyness of the campus, so I'm sure it will be a richer event than a single place.

[Anchor]
For some reason, I think this event will be more lively. As mentioned earlier, he said he hoped that companies in Jeonbuk would become a bridgehead for overseas expansion. However, the first thing to do is the international competitiveness of companies in Jeonbuk, so what do you think of this?

[Kwan Young Kim]
Usually, when it comes to Jeonbuk, don't agricultural life bio lead? Isn't the other manufacturing industry a little later? You're thinking like this, but it's changed a lot over the past 10 years. Carbon industry, hydrogen industry, and Korea's only hydrogen-specialized industrial complex are located in Wanju. And last year, Saemangeum was designated as a secondary battery-specific complex, and a large number of secondary battery-related companies are coming. In addition, 95% of Korea's cars are produced in Jeonbuk by buses and trucks. So, since the automobile-related industries and special cars are very developed, I think we should actively promote these things. In order for Jeonbuk to have a strength in the manufacturing industry, shouldn't small and medium-sized companies that have already been established and operated be competitive?

That's why we're the only one in the country to join hands with Samsung Electronics to run a Jeonbuk-type Samsung smart factory business. This project has created a program in which 30 retired engineers from Samsung Electronics directly hire 30 engineers from Jeonbuk and work together while mentoring 70 small and medium-sized companies in Jeonbuk a year, and the average productivity improvement rate of the companies that received the service through this program is usually about 35%. So I think this program is popular, and it will greatly contribute to the competitiveness of Jeonbuk.

[Anchor]
You mentioned Hanok Village earlier, but isn't Jeonju a city with well-preserved traditional culture? I heard that you can access not only competitors but also cultural performances.

[Kwan Young Kim]
It is a place with so many cultural assets that we have the third largest number of intangible cultural properties in the country after Gyeonggi-do and Seoul. That's why pansori, Korean traditional music, and such performances continue everywhere as buskit performances. Also, Korea's National Intangible Industrial Park is in Jeonju. So, during the event, we made it possible to see performances of various intangible heritage. On the last day of the event, we have the only fermented food international expo in Korea, and a lot of companies from about 30 countries participate. In particular, I will tell you that we have created a variety of attractions and foods so that many people can experience the appearance of Jeonbuk, the home of food culture.

[Anchor]
It is known that the Jeonbuk and the central government, the Overseas Korean Administration, prepared this competition together, so was there any difficulty in dividing roles?

[Kwan Young Kim]
With the Overseas Korean Office and Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province, Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province mainly prepared hardware aspects, and software, especially meetings, and various networking meetings were held by Korean businessmen, and these meetings were mainly prepared by the Overseas Korean Office. In addition to that, we also hold a startup start-up competition during that period in addition to the events prepared by the Korean Residents' Office. Have you ever heard of the international drone industry, drone soccer? It's been very popular recently. Earlier this year, at CES and CES in Las Vegas, Jeonju founded drone soccer, and it was very popular because drone soccer went there. This time, the drone industry fair will be held during the same period.

[Anchor]
Aside from the world Korean business competition, wasn't the integration theory of Jeonju and Wanju in Jeollabuk-do? It's been canceled 3 times so what will happen this time?

[Kwan Young Kim]
There is a desperate desire to learn many lessons from the three failures and succeed in integration for the development of Jeonbuk this time. In particular, the difference from the past is that if the government led in the past, this time it started by asking residents to sign and vote, so I think it is much more likely because the residents themselves are public-led integration attempts. However, since all these decisions are finally made by the people of Wanju-gun, we will help the people of Wanju-gun to accurately judge their strengths and weaknesses with accurate information and then make a reasonable decision. And I'm thinking of continuously explaining the vision after integration.

[Anchor]
He is nicknamed a preacher for attracting companies. How good is it?

[Kwan Young Kim]
Every toast since I took office is in its heyday. For companies that will come to Jeonbuk and succeed. Since I'm shouting out my heyday, I think you're saying I'm a corporate evangelist. We are resolving corporate difficulties by marking 2800 companies with only 2,800 civil servants in North Jeolla Province on a 1:1 scale. In addition, we changed the environmental impact crackdown to a pre-announcement system, and we leave the tax audit to companies to choose the timing for convenience of companies. These were recognized and we were selected as the best city for business in Korea, and these things seem to have gone viral on companies. We have received about 15 trillion won in investment over the past 10 years, but we have received about 13 trillion won in investment over the past two years, which is also showing results.

[Anchor]
So far, we have talked with Kim Kwan-young, governor of Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province.