The Daedeok R&D Special Zone hopes to attract some three thousand cutting-edge tech firms and 20 foreign research & development centers by 2015.

The country's first R&D special district, located in Daejeon, South Choongcheong Province, seeks to become a world-class "innovation cluster" to earn five hundred billion won, or five hundred million US dollars, in royalties and some 30 trillion won in revenue.

Vice Minister of Science and Technology Choi Seok-shik announced the town's development plan at the launching ceremony Thursday at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon.

Choi also said the town's goal is to increase ten-fold the number of its patents registered in foreign countries to 16 thousand by 2015.

To this end, the government will foster an integrated environment for venture firms to smoothly operate within the complex, and provide sufficient support in all aspects from startup, tech development, human resources, management and marketing.

Choi aded that the government will provide favorable business and living conditions for foreign investors. To nurture such a global environment, the government will build a foreigner-only residential complex within the Daedeok tech valley by 2007.

The National Assembly passed a law to establish an R&D zone in Daejeon last December with financial, tax and administrative benefits.

The law, which takes effect on July 1, is part of the Roh administration's drive to convert industrial complexes into "innovation clusters" that will lead technological development.

At the ceremony, President Roh pledged his full support for the project, and stressed the need to create a system in which research centers, industries and schools join to enhance competitiveness.