President Park Geun-hye visited the central city of Daejeon on Friday as part of her efforts to promote the growth of new and innovative businesses across the nation.

One of the Park administration’s key objectives is to boost the economy by turning creative ideas into businesses through the fusion of science and technology, culture, IT and other realms.

Last month, the government announced a plan to link the country’s conglomerates to innovation centers nationwide as part of efforts to build a “creative economy.”

The innovation centers are meant to nurture local startups and venture firms with the assistance of conglomerates.

“Compared to Daejeon’s excellent research and development skills, start-up and business activity has been relatively low,” Park said at the opening ceremony of the innovation center in Daejeon. “The problem is that the rich research achievements of funding institutes and universities are not being properly commercialized.”

Park expressed hope that new mentoring programs provided at the innovating center would help create a venture success story in Daejeon.

Last month, Park also attended the opening ceremony of an innovation center in Daegu, 300 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)