South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) said on March 25 they will run an open call until next month 27 for a project to build a regional information security cluster.

The bid covers two super-regions, Daegu-Gyeongbuk and Jeolla-Jeju, excluding the existing Southeast (Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam) and Chungcheong regions. Local governments in each region and local software industry promotion agencies will apply as a consortium, and 1 project group will be selected. The selected group will receive 2 billion won a year for 5 years, totaling 10 billion won in state funds. Including a 100 percent match by local funds, the project totals 20 billion won.

The cluster will include space for companies to move in, a test bed and a hands-on cyber training centre. It will also run programmes to foster local information security companies, train talent and support networking.

Lim Jeong-gyu (임정규), director general for information security and network policy at the ministry, said this is a process to expand the information security ecosystem that has connected the Seoul metropolitan area, the Southeast region and the Chungcheong region nationwide. He said the ministry will continue to provide field-focused policy support to raise regional information security capabilities to the next level.