The South Korean government announced plans Wednesday to transform the country’s aging industrial complexes into advanced, attractive workplaces, especially for the younger working generation.

To this end, the government and private companies will together raise a total of 1.2 trillion won ($1.16 billion) to create an “industrial complex innovation fund” that will be used to improve working and living conditions at industrial complexes, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The measures are meant to enhance the competitiveness of the zones being renewed 50 years after the country began building its first industrial complex in what is now Guro-dong in southwestern Seoul.

“Industrial complexes have played and continue to play a great role in terms of employment and exports, but now is the time for us to transform them into an advanced base for a creative economy,” Hwang Kyu-yeon, head of the ministry’s international innovation bureau, told a press briefing. (Yonhap)