INCHEON, KOREA — Incheon Metropolitan City is striving to make Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) an outpost for Korea’s service industry, Mayor Song Young-gil said.
“As a means of accelerating economic growth and solving a high unemployment problem, Incheon City will exert all-out efforts to make the year 2011 the beginning year to build an outpost for the nation’s service industry, Mayor Song told the Korea IT Times.
“Related to this, we will strive to secure investment funds for the active development of the Yeongjong and Cheongna districts where the advance base of the service industry is located,” he said.
Noting that Incheon succeeded in attracting such large enterprises as Samsung, Lotte and LG into the city last year, Song said, “We attained remarkable achievements in the service industry. Along with Lotte Department Store and E-Land Mall in Songdo International City and Shinsegye Department Store in Cheongna district, Stony Brook of State University of New York opened its school in Songo in March this year.”
Mayor Song said that large companies’ active investment in Incheon was mainly attributable to the city’s top-class logistics infrastructure, including Incheon International Airport and Incheon Port.
“We expect a growing number of domestic and foreign tourists to visit Incheon in the near future as many state-of-the-art buildings, including Lotte Shopping Mall, an international hospital, an international business estate, Northeast Asia Trade Center and Art Center are scheduled to open in the city,” said Song.
He explained that the service industry, which can create a great number of jobs, is a new growth industry called the Blue Ocean in the era of $30,000 per capita income.
“Actually, IFEZ has many comprehensive merits within the service industry, including medical, educational, entertainment and tourism services, and is comparable with the shopping industry in Hong Kong, casinos in Macao, medical tourism and the casino in Singapore, and the international business sector of Dubai,” he said.
2014 Incheon Asian Games
Under the slogan of “diversity shines here,” Incheon City is now preparing to host the 2014 Incheon Asian Games, which will be held in the city from September 19 to October 4.
“We are going all-out to make the 2014 Incheon Asiad a true festival experience recognizing each country’s diverse cultures and traditions and seeking solidarity and peace. In particular, we are focusing to expand the sports facilities by making international and environment-friendly competition,” said the mayor.
Incheon City plans to complete the construction of an athletes’ village and a media village by June 2014, while expanding or repairing existing stadiums and training facilities.
“We plan to impress 4 billion Asian people with competitive contents at th
