GANGWON-DO < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

Gangwon Province Governor Choi Mun-su and the Provincial Superintendent of the Education Office Min Byeong-hui signed an MOU on Monday to establish the next generation green car cluster with Jeon Gwang-il, CEO of EcoCar.

The company's partners including GEM, Eco Motors and Y2K Elecom along with its foreign investors participated in the signing ceremony.

The MOU is designed to invest 103.1 billion won to build the green car cluster on a 311,194 square meter-site with foreign investment worth $40 million. The cluster aims at establishing the One-Stop System that integrates the whole process of manufacturing electric automotive components and completed products of two-wheeled vehicles and conducting tests and R&D and logistics.

The establishment of manufacturing and R&D facilities is expected to create 920 jobs including 80 existing workers. The cluster plans to select more than 70% of new workers from graduates of the region's specialized high schools.

Gangwon forecasts that the cluster will hire about 1,500 employees including 1,000 residents in 2020 when the factory's operating capacity is expected to reach its target.

For achieving the goal, Gangwon Education Office will conclude an additional agreement with EcoCar on cultivating workforces through cooperation with the academic, industrial and research institute sectors.

Gangwon believes that if companies specialized in eco-friendly electric two-wheeled vehicles move to Chuncheon, it could make a greater contribution to nurturing talented human resources in the new growth engine industry.

In addition, the cluster can create jobs and boost the regional economy, according to Gangwon.

"EcoCar is a manufacturer of environmentally-friendly vehicles, putting emphasis on ecosystem. The local government and education office will make joint efforts to boost the regional economy and create jobs for Gangwon residents," said the governor.

The superintendent said, "We help graduates from specialized high schools in Gangwon develop into major players."

EcoCar is the first to be authorized as the manufacturer of the electric two-wheeled vehicle by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs and was selected as the global No. 1 enterprise in late 2011 by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Korea Productivity Center.

Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (Feb. 27, 2012)

**This is an English translation of a Korean news article.