“Seoul has ranked 10th as the most ideal city to start a business among 280 cities all around the world. It has also been selected as a city with a suitable startup ecosystem. Currently, 13,000 businesses in Seoul employ 20,000 people with a value amounting to 223 trillion won,” Seoul City Mayor Oh-Sehoon confidently presented his achievements thus far in his keynote speech during the first day of the “Try Everything 2022” global startup festival.

“Try Everything 2022,” presented by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, will be held from September 21 (Wednesday) to September 23 (Friday) at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP). The global startup festival will gather different members from the startup ecosystem, including 120 investment companies, among which are 20 foreign companies, and 1,300 startup companies, among which are 30 foreign companies– the largest scale of participants the event has seen yet ever since the yearly festival started.

In his congratulatory speech, Seoul City Mayor Se-hoon Oh conveyed his ambitions and said, “With Seoul’s accumulated results, we will do our best to go beyond the top 10 and place within the top 5 cities. In order to achieve this, Seoul is currently conducting an open innovation project which connects 1,000 startups with about 100 large and medium-sized businesses and enterprises.” With this plan, the mayor stated, “I will make Seoul a financial capital, a city sought by talented people, and a city for an ideal startup ecosystem.”

He then stressed that entrepreneurship plays the most significant role in boosting Seoul’s competitiveness. “Based on innovation, we will be able to make Seoul a much more attractive city for the implementation of Seoul Vision 2030,” he said.

Mayor Oh also highlighted the importance of finance, manpower, and the ecosystem. He expounded, “We will spare no efforts to provide all means of support in launching the circumstances for Seoul being the financial city of Asia, such as the establishment of Invest Seoul and the Seoul Fintech Lab in Yeouido, Seoul.”

As part of cultivating startup businesses, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is proposing a youth job policy and are recruiting people of talent. At present, the Seoul Software Academy (SeSAC) is conducting extensive training at an affordable value to cultivate 40,000 individuals in high-tech industries such as in artificial intelligence (AI) and in internet of things (IoT).

As Mayor Oh mentioned the significance of cultivating startup businesses and education, lastly, he also reiterated the importance of recruiting human resources and stated, “With 100 major conglomerates and small and medium sized enterprises collaborating with 1,000 startups through open innovation, we will help rebuild and restore the hierarchical mobility ladder in the workforce.”

Meanwhile, the city of Seoul has been selected as a Global TOP 10 city to start a business. Various players of the startup ecosystem, such as global corporations, investment institutions, unicorn companies, and the media will attend to accelerate the invigoration of the Seoul startup ecosystem. Accordingly, over 40 programs, such as competitions, lectures, and seminars, will be held at Try Everything 2022, and various global institutions and Korean and foreign startup ecosystem experts, such as South Summit, Extreme Tech Challenge, Startup Genome, and the U.S. EMBASSY & CONSULATE, will be in attendance.

This year's 2022 TRY EVERYTHING special articles were jointly planned and conducted by AVING NEWS and the Seoul Business Agency (sba), which contributes to the revitalization of the Seoul economy through comprehensive and systematic nurturing of small and medium-sized enterprises in Seoul.