South Korea has implemented various policies to alleviate the concentration of population in the metropolitan area and achieve balanced national development. However, the concentration of population and industry in the capital region continues to wors...
South Korea has implemented various policies to alleviate the concentration of population in the metropolitan area and achieve balanced national development. However, the concentration of population and industry in the capital region continues to worsen. Consequently, structural problems such as regional economic stagnation, employment imbalance, and population outflow persist. To address these issues, local governments are actively pursuing policies to foster local industries and attract businesses. Accordingly, South Jeolla Province has identified cutting-edge industries as a key driver for enhancing regional competitiveness and revitalizing the economy, and is currently developing a national industrial complex for future high-tech materials centered around the Gwangyang Bay area. The Gwangyang Bay area is a key economic zone in South Jeolla Province, converging with port logistics, energy, and tourism, centered around the steel and chemical industries. This industrial cluster accounts for over 70% of the province's total production. South Jeolla Province, with its existing industrial complexes nearing saturation, is considering building a new national industrial complex of approximately 3.9 million square meters to strengthen the competitiveness of future industries. The province aims to foster an industrial ecosystem centered on the materials, components, and equipment industries as a hub for future high-tech industries. The Gwangyang Bay area's competitive edge as a future center of high-tech industries is assessed to be driven by its industrial infrastructure in the chemical, steel, and energy sectors, centered around anchor companies such as Lotte, POSCO, and Hanwha, and its raw material supply capacity, including an annual crude steel production capacity of over 20 million tons. According to the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (2025), which conducted the project for the future high-tech materials national industrial complex, the new Gwangyang Bay area future high-tech materials national industrial complex is expected to generate over KRW 3.5 trillion in production inducement effects, KRW 2.2 trillion in added value creation, an internal rate of return exceeding 4.8%, and a cost-benefit ratio of 1.055. These financial feasibility factors are expected to attract numerous companies. Under these conditions, the Gwangyang Bay area has great potential to develop into a hub for advanced materials, parts, and equipment industries, including functional chemicals, precision chemicals, metal materials, new materials, and energy. This study systematically analyzed the industrial structure, competitiveness, and growth potential of the existing key industries in the Gwangyang Bay Area. Based on this analysis, it aimed to propose future industrial development directions and measures to strengthen the competitiveness of the industrial complexes located there. Utilizing diverse analytical techniques, including location analysis, growth rate time lag analysis, transaction relationships, production scale, port import/export linkages, and value chain structure analysis, the study systematically and empirically analyzed the competitiveness and growth potential of each industry and type within the industrial complex. Based on these analysis results, the study focused on identifying industries and types suitable for the Gwangyang Bay Area and selecting the most optimal ones. The analysis results confirmed the competitiveness of the Gwangyang Bay Area's key and future industries, as well as their growth prospects. First, through location analysis and time-lag analysis of regional growth rates, the competitiveness and future growth prospects of these industries were empirically confirmed. However, the suitability of Jeollanam-do's three existing key industries for the Gwangyang Bay Area should be re-evaluated, and periodic status analyses are necessary to reflect changes in future industries and the restructuring of key industries. Therefore, to strengthen the competitiveness of existing key industries, industrial restructuring and diversification strategies are necessary for newly developed industrial complexes. Second, we analyzed the transaction relationships and production scale of future industries in the Gwangyang Bay area to assess their competitiveness and future growth potential. Production scale is a key metric for assessing the competitiveness and future expansion potential of an industry or sector. It allows us to infer investment directions and the prospects for production and supply chain expansion by industry, sector, and value chain. The analysis of transaction relationships confirmed that all growth industries are interconnected and have established a robust supply chain structure, demonstrating significant inter-industry spillover effects. Third, we used a variety of analytical techniques, including location analysis, growth rate time lag analysis, value chain structure analysis, production scale analysis, transaction relationship analysis, and port import/export linkage analysis, in a complementary, sequential, and integrated manner to confirm industry-specific and sector-specific fit. The results presented in Table 7-1 illustrate the comparison and verification of the results from each analytical technique. This approach enhances the accuracy of assessing an industry's competitiveness and future growth potential and can be utilized for policy purposes. This study quantitatively analyzed the structural characteristics, industrial competitiveness, and future growth potential of the Gwangyang Bay area's industries. This enabled us to identify the direction of newly developed industrial complexes and the prospects for industrial ecosystem advancement. With the Gwangyang Bay area as its central axis, we anticipate contributing to the realization of balanced national development and the sustainable development of the Jeollanam-do metropolitan area.