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According to Yonhap News,

(ANSAN=Yonhap News) On September 6, the new Smart Textronics Research Center has opened at the Gyeonggi Technopark in Ansan City, where the provincial government will cooperate with Germany  on developing convergence technologies for intelligent electronic textiles.

Smart textronics, a portmanteau of 'textile' and 'electronics', refers to integrated electronic textiles and wearable electronic equipment.

The goal of the new research center is to combine the province's textile manufacturing know-how and Germany's original technologies to lead in the future global market for intelligent textronics.

Earlier, in November 2016, the two parties opened the Dream2Lab2Fab research center in the German city of Aachen, where they have been carrying out joint research projects.

The new center at Gyeonggi Technopark spans a total of 376 square meters, and employs 20 Korean and 15 German researchers.

Working with the province, the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), Sungkyunkwan University, the German state of North Rhin-Westphalia and RWTH Aachen University, the center plans to develop smart textronics technology, and commercialize it through local small and medium enterprises.

A total of KRW 17.6 billion from the national and province budget will be injected into the project until 2021, as well as an additional EUR 29 million from Germany.

The province expects the new center to grow by 33.6 percent on average every year, leading the global smart textronics market, which is projected to reach USD 4.7 billion by 2020.

A province source noted, "the government is focusing its efforts on developing high-functioning textiles to establish a foundation for the 4th industrial revolution," adding, the province "hopes the cooperation with Germany at the new center will result in an overall improvement of the local textile industry."



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