Finalized the 'International Science Business Belt'

국제과학비즈니스벨트' 종합계획 확정

On January of this year, the 29th National Science and Technology Council, presided by President M.B. Lee, officially finalized a contract for a big project to build an International Science and Business Belt(ISBB) that includes the establishment of a new institute, the Asian Basic Science Institute (ABSI) and the construction of a Rare Isotope Accelerator. The government will inject more than 3.5 trillion Wan into the ISBB project. The investment to build the care laboratory for the project, the heavy ion accelerator, the first one in Korea, will be 460 billion Wan, Korea thus aiming to build an accelerator with world-class performance. This will be the sixth in the world. The construction will start from 2012, and is planned to finish by 2015. ABSI, whose construction will be finished by 2012, is planned to be a care laboratory with 3,000 scientists and staff. To. attract world class researchers and other professionals from aver the world, the project includes the creation of a new city with a superb educational, cultural environment, and comfortable living environment for an international community. The site for this new science and business city, "scientific ecosystem", has not been officially decided yet, and supposed to be announced in the first half af this year.