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 2012 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 USD 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 Incheon is Moving to Business Hub of Northeast Asia local government | Incheon City Song Young-gil , Mayor of Incheon Metropolitan City 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 the 17th Asian Games. To this end, we will actively propel the Vision 2014 program, a policy supporting lesser nations in terms of sports, and a campaign to collect 50,000 supporters for the Games,” said Song.
To make the 2014 Incheon Asian Games the world’s top-class smart IT competition, Incheon City concluded a business cooperation agreement with the National Information Society Agency.
Incheon aims to become a stay ”home away from home”
Song said that he is also developing the tourism industry in order to attract repeated visits by tourists. “In line with this, Incheon City with its 150 islands, is developing four-season tour packages, including a fishery village tour package featuring the islands’ characteristics, and a night tour package introducing the sunrise and sunset sights of the West Sea.
“In addition, we are moving to create a ‘beauty street’ where domestic and foreign tourists can enjoy the fine views of Incheon’s Great Bridge, and cosmetics treatment and hairdressing services. In particular, we are making a strong push for a medical tourism package by making the best use of Korea’s excellent medical skills and advanced medical facilities,” he said.
The city is also providing a temple stay program, a unique cultural program which lets foreign tourists experience the life of Buddhist practitioners at traditional temples. “In particular, we are doubling our efforts to attract more Chinese tourists to our city this year to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the dipliomatic relations. We aim to attract more than 100,000 Chinese tourists in 2012 through a variety of special tour packages and festivals linked with the city’s affluent tourism resources,” said the mayor.
In 2011, the number of foreign tourists who visited Incheon reached 1.7 million. Of the total, some 35 percent or 600,000 are Chinese visitors. “Considering the high growth of the Chinese economy and the strong yuan currency, the number of Chinese overseas tourists is expected to grow at a rapid pace. Accordingly, we can attract more Chinese tourists to Incheon,” said Song.
The Following are some of the main points discussed during the interview with Song Young-gil Mayor of Incheon Metropolitan City.
Q : Would you introduce to our readers the global city of Incheon
A : Incheon City boasts many geopolitical merits. The city’s location, a gateway for China, Northeast Asia such as its location opened toward China, Northeast Asia, Mongolia and Siberia is also an outpost for trade between South Korea and North Korea. Furthermore, Incheon also combines logistical support for the Cheolla and Chungcheong provinces.
IFEZ connects China with some 350 million consumers that have a per capita income of over USD 30,000 and the economic power of Japan. Meanwhile, the Songdo Free Economic Zone, a center of transportation and an environment-friendly city, will become a center for the world’s bio- industry as it succeeded in attracting Celltrion, a company that boasts that the world’s second largest bio is similar to the production facility. The world’s bio similar market volume is expected to reach 60 trillion won in 2015.
To create a cluster of high-tech industries, Incheon City will go all-out to attract Samsung, Dong-A Pharmaceutical companies, venture companies and international research and educational institutions. Songdo will also be equipped with state-of-the-art buildings, parks, golf courses, a university, an international hospital and shopping malls which will provide residents with a comfortable and convenient living area.
In a nutshell, we will make Incheon a smart city armed with ubiquitous and environment-friendly technologies and a green city where people can live harmoniously with nature.
Q : Early this year, Incheon City suggested the expansion of investment and education as its vision for sustainable growth. Would you comment on the city’s future task
A : Incheon City’s core goals for this year are the creation of jobs through attracting investment and talents through education and welfare. Job creation is the core of any economic structure. We will create more jobs by attracting large and promising mid-tier companies as well as competitive small and medium-sized firms.
In addition, we will make efforts to expand new growth engines through economic free zone projects, airport and harbor projects and, develop western islands. We will drastically improve the city’s education by starting the Songdo Global Campus and establishing a new international school, while attracting a number of talents from other provinces and foreign countries, including China, Japan and Southeast Asian countries.
Q : World renowned economists stress that the national growth engine depends on the use of ocean resources. Would you introduce Incheon City’s vision to develop the area’s marine resources
A : The Incheon coast is one of the world’s top five mud flats. We need to develop the city’s marine industry by properly using the mud flats and surrounding sea. The fishery sector is changing from a fish-catching primary industry to a secondary and tertiary industry due to the process of marine products, and improvement of distribution channels.
We also plan to develop a marine general tourist estate by utilizing the sea and various ocean leisure tour programs. In addition, Incheon City is moving to develop the well-being green industry using seaweeds and launch the ocean’s bio energy research & development project as a means of creating value added chains and expanding the income of the city’s fishing workers.
