Support for employment safety of root companies, strengthening of corporate capacity of small managers, high purity of rare metals
-Break News Incheon Reporter Park Sang-do

Incheon City (Mayor Jeong-bok Yoo) is accelerating the project to foster and support the root industry, which is experiencing a crisis due to a surge in raw material prices, an interest rate hike, and a deepening manpower shortage.

The strategy is to find the driving force that will drive Incheon's future economy from the root industry, with a policy to lead the local economy by providing a continuous foundation for manufacturing-based SMEs so that the root economy can be strong.

The manufacturing industry is the root industry of Korea as well as the root industry of Incheon.

However, as the number of apartments increased due to the development of new towns and large-scale housing sites, manufacturing factories lost their positions, and the steep rise in factory site rents encouraged companies to leave Incheon.

The COVID-19 situation also accelerated the downturn in the root industry.

As of the end of 2020, there were 3,227 root industry enterprises in Incheon, occupying 10.6% of the 3553 nationwide, and their annual sales were 13,595.8 billion won, accounting for 8.9% of the total root enterprises.

86.6% of the sales of root companies in the Incheon area were less than 5 billion won, and 13.3% were small businesses with less than 500 million to 1 billion won, the largest in the country.

This is acting as a cause of stagnant growth and weakening of competitiveness of Incheon-rooted companies.

Accordingly, Incheon City plans to strengthen the competitiveness of the root industry and support the employment stability of workers by upgrading the root industry, purifying rare metals, and establishing a support center for the demonstration of small managers.

◇ ‘Leap in the root industry, a better tomorrow’
Preemptive measures for job security ․․․ 47.7 billion investment over 5 years from 2020, target to create 7,750 jobs

‘Leaping the Root Industry, A Better Tomorrow’ is a project selected by the Ministry of Employment and Labor in 2020 to strengthen competitiveness and support employment stability of workers through the advancement of the root industry.

This year, the 3rd year of the project, will expand the supported industries to 14 by adding 8 new materials and cutting-edge industries to the existing 6 root industries, and shift from corporate-oriented support to crisis worker support.

The project promotion system will be simplified from stage 3 to stage 2, and basic center functions and programs will be strengthened.

It aims to create 1,336 jobs by investing a total budget of 7.123 billion won in △creating a self-sustaining root industry ecosystem △preparing conditions for creating new jobs and △stable job security.

Last year, when the goal was to create 1,400 jobs, 116.1% (1,626 people) of the target was achieved.
 

At the same time, the city is operating the ‘Digital Root Masters Education Center’, which digitizes the skills of masters in the root industry and builds a systematic transmission system for root technologies.

This is to build a sustainable ecosystem for the root industry, which is limited by aging and lack of specialized manpower, by selecting casting, welding, and surface treatment root masters and tracing their skilled skills in the form of digital records to lay the foundation for technological succession.

In addition, the center supports industry-university cooperation technology that can solve the difficulties of root companies and problems in the production process, and prepares a customized education system for the field.
 

◇ In the second half of 2022, the sub-manager demonstration support center will be opened.
Support for demonstration, internalization of original technology, support for international cooperation
 

The sub-manager demonstration support center, which is a key base for strengthening the technical skills of the sub-manager (materials, parts, and equipment) companies, will open in the second half of this year.

In the production structure of ‘raw materials-intermediate goods-finished products’, the sub-manager who corresponds to ‘intermediate goods’ plays the role of a ‘game changer’ that determines whether the finished product market wins or loses.

As of 2019, the manager is driving production, added value, and employment in the manufacturing industry, accounting for 51% (796 trillion won) of the total manufacturing output (1,553 trillion won).

As of the same year, there were 2,138 small planting industry businesses in Incheon, which accounted for 7.4% of the nation’s 28,908 companies. (841,704 trillion won) remained at 3.7%.

The city of Incheon has been promoting the project to build a sub-manager demonstration support center since 2020 with the goal of strengthening the capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises and localizing technology.

The center will serve as an incubator to support the technology development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) related to small and medium-sized businesses in the Namdong Industrial Complex, and will support commercialization by supporting the demonstration of new technologies, as well as providing services such as the development of source technologies, support for international cooperation, and introduction of overseas technologies tailored to companies. to be.

◇ Industrial vitamins, ‘rare metals’
Rare metal industrial technology center that supports companies' rare metal technology development, materialization, and commercialization… Incheon only invests 11.5 billion won in the creation of a demonstration base for high purity of rare metals

In order to foster the rare metal industry, Incheon City is supporting the project to create a demonstration base for high purity of rare metals.

Rare metals, which collectively refer to 35 types of indium, potassium, and rare earths, are raw materials for high-tech industries such as semiconductors and secondary batteries.

As demand increases, the ransom price tends to rise, but in the case of Korea, a solution is urgently needed due to the high dependence on imports, resulting in leakage of added manufacturing value, and the sharp rise in raw material prices due to the unstable international situation.

Without a stable supply base for rare metals, the sustainable growth of the new growth engine industry is impossible.

In response, Incheon City has been promoting the ‘rare metal high-purity demonstration foundation construction project’ since 2020 to build the infrastructure for nurturing the rare metal industry together with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and to support the R&D of rare metal companies in the Incheon area.

Incheon Metropolitan City is providing equipment for high-purity production of rare metals and supporting related technical services in the rare metal industry technology center of the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, located on the 6th floor of the Mark One Knowledge Industry Center in Namdong-gu.

In particular, it is concentrating on technical support for enterprise use and preparation of a certification system by establishing an empirical foundation for the high purity of rare earths and high melting point and high activity rare metals.

By strengthening the rare metal value chain (purchase, production, logistics, management support, and sales), Incheon City is expected to secure an independent industrial system on issues related to high-purity rare metal raw materials and materials, such as the US-China rare earth dispute and Japan's export regulations. are doing