Although some would say that Singapore is the Silicon Valley of Asia, there are many who would argue that Beijing or Seoul are more deserving of the title. Seoul in particular is becoming a burgeoning startup hub, and the South Korean government wants to boost that growth even more by investing $65.9 billion into creating and promoting startups this year. Most of the money will be invested into Pangyo, a city to the south of Seoul that’s already a hub for culture and technology in the country, but will grown even further with these investments.
The government plans to build business zones this year that are modeled after Silicon Valley in the U.S. and house ventures from home and abroad as part of efforts to help develop a startup hub, the science ministry said Monday. In a New Year’s policy report to President Park Geun-hye, the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning said it will build what it calls an “Asian Silicon Valley” in Sangam-dong, western Seoul, which will focus on combining virtual reality and computer graphics technologies with entertainment content. The ministry earlier said that it also plans to invest 1.5 trillion won (US$1.23 billion) in establishing the 430,000-square-meter Creative Economy Valley in Pangyo, south of Seoul, which aims to host 1,600 companies employing more than 100,000 people. The plan is in line with the government’s creative-economy drive, which refers to the administration’s flagship policy that aims to merge different industrial sectors, mostly with information and communications technologies, to generate new business opportunities.