[THE INVESTOR] President Park Geun-hye visited a major industrial complex in the southern city of Gumi on Oct. 19 in her latest move to call for efforts to foster new industries and reinvigorate the local economy.

Her provincial tour to Gumi, where she has a strong following, came amid flagging public support. Park’s approval rating fell to a record low of 26 percent in a survey released on Oct. 14 by the local pollster Gallup Korea.

She visited KAIDEA, a 3-D printer developer, and VM e-Korea, an electric bicycle manufacturer, in the district.

Formed in 2014, the district is now home to some 50 research institutes and four universities, and has emerged as a key model for industrial-academic collaboration, which the Park government has been pushing to expand to help create jobs, find new growth engines and revitalize the economy.

Over the last three years, some 19 industrial-academic collaborative projects have been carried out in the sprawling district with scores of students having participated in these projects. Of these students, some 77 have landed jobs within the Gumi industrial complex.

The president, then, toured the smart factory of Mooryong, a high-tech firm specializing in the surface treatment of auto parts and mobile phones cases.

Mooryong is one of the leading companies in the introduction of smart factories. It has invested 14.1 billion won (US$12.5 million) over the last six years to refurbish its manufacturing facilities and make them fully automated.

In Gumi, Park also attended the ground breaking ceremony for a factory of Toray Advanced Materials Korea, an affiliate of Japan’s Toray Industries, which specializes in the production of chemical materials.

Toray currently runs a dozen factories in South Korea, and has invested 3.7 trillion won into the Asian country.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)