"We call this the 'Salmon Project.' A growing number of entrepreneurs from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) are returning to Pohang after building their companies in the capital region. Quite a few of these firms have valuations reaching hundreds of billions of won."
POSTECH President Kim Sung-keun made these remarks Monday at POSCO's Cheongsongdae in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, citing so-called "salmon companies" such as Graphene Square, ANPoly, and Neuromeka.
Pohang is the only provincial city in Korea that hosts both top-five domestic conglomerates and top-five universities. The city has built out its educational infrastructure starting from daycare, along with jobs, talent development, and a startup ecosystem. That is why officials from the National Land Spatial Transformation Policy Task Force under the Office for Government Policy Coordination and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry visited Pohang on this day. They came as part of the first itinerary of the "National Land Transformation Field Lab," which examines successful regional growth models ahead of the policy's full-scale rollout in the second half of this year.
At Asia's largest workplace daycare, built with a 10 billion won investment from POSCO, visitors marveled, "It makes me want to have another child." The facility offers spacious childcare areas divided by age from 1 to 7, along with outdoor play spaces. Children here can receive high-quality education without leaving the region, attending Pohang Jecheol High School, an autonomous private high school, and POSTECH, a world-class engineering university.
Afterward, they may join POSCO or take on entrepreneurship at "Change-up Ground," a startup incubator established with roughly 83 billion won from POSCO. Opened on the POSTECH campus in 2022, Change-up Ground is the largest of its kind in the southeastern region, with a total floor area of 28,000 square meters. It houses about 90 startups with a combined enterprise valuation of 1.5 trillion won. Hong Dae-woong, head of the investment division at POSTECH Holdings, said, "More than 30 of these startups alone are valued at over 10 billion won."
Graphene Square, a representative "salmon company," also originated here. The firm relocated its base from Gyeonggi Province to Pohang in 2021 and completed the world's first mass-production plant for graphene film. Salmon companies are also bringing employees and their families along during the headquarters relocation process. Roh Sang-cheol, CEO of bio-materials company ANPoly, said at the company's headquarters and factory completion ceremony in the Pohang Convergence Technology Industrial District in April this year, "All of our married employees came down together, and they plan to have children in Pohang." President Kim added, "Pohang's salmon companies are an excellent counterexample to the joke that 'Pangyo is the southern boundary line.'"
The reason these companies return to Pohang is not simply hometown loyalty. President Kim explained, "Considering POSTECH's world-class research and development infrastructure, including its synchrotron radiation accelerator, and Pohang's robust technology ecosystem, they judged that returning was worth it." The Apple Developer Academy, the sixth in the world and the only one in Northeast Asia, along with the world's first Apple Manufacturing R&D Support Center, is also drawing developers and entrepreneurial talent. By 2030, "Scale-up Ground," which will support companies five years or more after founding, is set to open across from Change-up Ground.
In addition, opportunities for investment attraction and business commercialization through networks involving POSCO Group affiliates, government agencies, and local governments are abundant. Companies, universities, and the region effectively move as a single ecosystem, expanding the foundation for growth.
Regulatory easing and support measures for companies, the core axis of regional growth, are also expected to expand. Kim Yoon-sik, executive officer at POSCO's Investment Engineering Division 1, whom reporters met at POSCO Cheongsongdae, cited as a representative difficulty that it took six years just to obtain site permits for hydrogen reduction steelmaking, a future steelmaking technology. The government plans to support corporate regional investment through one-stop regulatory improvements via the Mega Special Zone Special Act, just as it pledged full support for Hyundai Motor Group's Saemangeum project. Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kim Yun-deok also stated last month at the North Jeolla Provincial Council, "It is the Ministry's principle to accept all of Hyundai Motor's requests."
While companies, jobs, and education matter, once cultural infrastructure is also in place, there is no longer any reason to head to Seoul. That is why POSTECH is pushing to bring in Kyobo Book Centre to its "Education Building," which it plans to construct on campus with an investment of 180 billion won. President Kim and POSTECH Vice President Kim Jong-kyu personally met with Kyobo Group Chairman Shin Chang-jae to make their pitch. Although large bookstore chains face restrictions on new openings due to regulations protecting livelihood-type businesses, Kyobo Book Centre operated a pop-up store at POSTECH's Park Tae-joon Academic Information Center for one week starting on the 18th of this month, expressing its sympathy with POSTECH's vision.
Following Pohang, the National Land Transformation Task Force plans to visit Naju in South Jeolla Province and Daejeon in turn. Kwon Hye-rin, head of the National Land Transformation Task Force, said, "In the past, we thought that if the population moved, living conditions would naturally follow, but in reality, that was not enough. The purpose of the National Land Transformation Field Lab is to find the secrets of success in regional fields and reflect them in central government policies."
