According to Yonhap News,
Construction of Marine Biotech Industry Center in Wando, South Jeolla Province will be completed next month.

The Wando county government announced on March 3 that the project, designed to construct a comprehensive industrial center to support business incubation, management, and marketing of marine biotech venture companies, is in its last stage.

The project has been under way since the ground-breaking in 2008 to build the center (3,512㎡) in a 8,818㎡ site within the Wando county agro-industrial complex with investment worth KRW 10.8 billion.

The center will have extraction, fermentation, concentration, packaging lines in Plant 1, and processing lines for canned goods, refrigeration, vacuum drying, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) in Plant 2.

In addition, natural fermentation facilities for salted food and fermented seaweed products will be established along with administrative offices for technology development, quality control, company support, and other convenient facilities.

Wando will install 44 types of food production systems including shaking incubator, high pressure steam sterilizer, and automatic food ingredient analyzer in the marine biotech industry center by June. The center will provide customized SME support services after pilot tests.

The county government is planning to transform the center into the “marine biotech industry hub” and improve livelihoods of Wando residents through development of consumer-oriented products.

Chairman of Wando County Agro-industrial Complex Association Moon Gi-gyeong said, “If it starts providing company support services, the center will help upgrade the level of fishing goods processing technologies.”

Source: Yonhap News (March 3, 2010)

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