The Korean version of Silicon Valley crossed the 70 trillion won ($59 billion) line in gross sales for the first time last year, a report from a think tank of the Gyeonggi provincial government said Tuesday.

The number of companies operating at Pangyo Techno Valley, just south of Seoul, reached 1,121 as of the end of last year, up 119 firms or 11.9 percent on-year. Their total sales recorded 70.27 trillion won, also up 1.3 percent from a year before, according to the Gyeonggi Institute of Science and Technology Promotion report. 

Launched in 2011, the country's 661,000-square-meter ICT hub hired 70,577 employees last year.

By industry, information technology took the lion's share with 862 companies, or 77 percent, of the total, followed by biotechnology with 137, cultural technology with 69 and nanotechnology with 11.

IT startups made up 90.9 percent of the companies, and workers in their 20s and 30s accounted for 72.3 percent of the total workforce. The tech valley also runs a startup campus and global R&D centers. (Yonhap)