For promoting the IT industry in an interview with The Korea IT Times, Yang Man-sik, director- general, Free International City Bureau, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, said: "We have decided to set up a comprehensive center for supporting venture businesses. As we are now on our way to build an innovative city, we plan to complete the building of a high-tech industrial complex on 235 acres of land by 2010 at the earliest. IT companies, such as Daum Communications, will be moving into the complex.
"In Jeju, the place that can not be thought of without tourism, there are six telematics services currently in operation. In addition to a navigation service, the telematics, first adopted in Korea, provides a wide variety of information, let alone the road guide from the airport to restaurants and lodgings.
In concert with the Jeju's innovative IT program, the Jeju Stone Park, located on 800 acres of land, has already joined Jeju's initiative to develop IT businesses by offering a voice guide in a wide range of languages to all its visitors. In Jeju, more information networks are being laid down one after another to make tourists' stay in Jeju far more convenient ones than ever before. And, as time passes by, the IT industry is taking up an important status in Jeju. And, owing to innovative IT schemes, Jeju is ever more playing the role of a test bed for IT ventures. For instance, Jeju has built up a system, in conjunction with broadcasting companies, to allow the real-time viewing of Mt. Halla through RFID-based images.
"Not only that, let's take a look at the livestock industry. The native black pigs of Jeju are very famous globally. However, since there are many black pigs in Seoul, too, people cannot know whether they are the real native pigs or not. Taking this into account, we have thus made it possible to trace black pig products by inserting chips to identify the butcher houses that first sold the products. Not stopping short from this, we have also started to adopt such system for marketing fish and vegetables, too.
"With regard to quality, the whole marketing process is open to consumers in a very transparent way under a complete ID system. Nowadays, consumers are not sure whether the products they buy are from Jeju or China, or from any other place. In some foreign countries, products are disguised as Korean-made. Such a background has brought up the need to attach bar codes to Jeju's mainstay products. Let me cite an example of what I mean with flatfish that we take pride in.
The flatfish from Jeju are very popular in Japan for their richness in taste and nutrient as they are nurtured in the exceptionally clean underground water. The sales made by exporting this product amounts to about 160 billion won annually - an amazing feat to be attained by a single item.
What we intend to do here is to attach bar codes to such products that we consider to be mainstay products so that all the information will be open to find out where a flatfish was raised or which chemical was used to treat vegetables.
"Jeju is truly endowed with the most suitable conditions for dong business. Aside from various employment benefits, we provide a half of what is needed to secure a business site. Moreover, we offer more than 100 million won to those employing more than ten local residents.
"At first, our system that has asked companies to operate under such administrative support seemed little unfamiliar to them. But, as Jeju superbly provided assistance after having attracted IT companies, the feedback has started to come up in the form of many benefits.
"Nowadays, there are over 200 IT companies in Jeju, doing business in various fields. Even so, they are mostly softwarerelated companies earning profits through export. For instance, a Jeju-based company with its headquarters in Jeju and assembly lines in Taiwan posts sales of about 70 billion won annually through export. In addition, most small companies, with employees of 10 or so, normally reap two billion won in exports.
"Since 2004, Jeju has been exerting a considerable effort to construct a first-rate infrastructure to support the IT industry. Such effort, in turn, has brought in highly positive responses from abroad. As Jeju has also shown a conspicuous growth among autonomous provinces, many requests are coming from autonomous governments abroad to seek cooperation. That's why we plan to actively take part in building close cooperative ties through various means, including the exchange of ideas on IT related issues.
"In the meantime, Jeju plans to invest about 10 trillion won for the current development projects that have already been undertaken. As a special governing province, there are many projects currently underway, such as beach resorts, the Golden Park, hot springs, the Chinatown, and ski slopes. In these surroundings, we are exerting every bit of our effort to make Jeju a globally competitive tourism hub coupled with sound infrastructure.
"Another feature worth mentioning is that the incentives we provide to attract companies do not terminate shortly, say less than a year. Rather, we provide a lot of benefits in such a manner as to exempt local taxes for ten years for not just foreign companies but also the Korean ones that decide to make nest in Jeju. For foreign companies, we provide tax benefits for fifteen years with a five-year mitigation period for corporate tax. In the years afterwards, a 50% reduction is offered. As for a Korean company that makes a capital investment of more than five billion won are offered all the more benefits, including the granting of a bus for the commuting service or other benefits that set Jeju apart from other cities and provinces. If we cut the corporate tax to 13% from the current 25%, the tax rate will be below those of Hong Kong or Singapore.
"Our goal has been set to make the whole of Jeju a tax-free zone with free air traffic. By doing so, we plan to build a truly favorable environment for companies to do business. In comparison to Incheon and other places, the Achilles heel on Jeju's part has so far stemmed from issues related to the land. From now on, however, we will build up a system that allows the immediate ground-breaking of a business once a foreign investment has been committed. By doing so, and with public officials acting for all customer needs, then we can secure a competitive edge.
Furthermore, since we deal with such tasks in a well-organized department that renders one-stop services, we can shorten the whole approval process to less than a year from the two years that have been necessary under normal conditions."
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