The Korea National Food Cluster, or FOODPOLIS, is a government-supported food industrial complex focused on Northeast Asia. The complex is being developed by the Korean government in Iksan, North Jeolla Province with a KRW 553.5 billion (USD 496.5 million) budget and will be complete by 2015.
Located close to China, the fastest-growing food market in the world, FOOD-POLIS is poised to become the new center for Northeast Asia’s food market, which caters to a population of 1.5 billion. The cluster plans to attract 160 domestic and international food companies and research insti-tutes, with a new industrial complex of 2,320,000m2 and residential area of 1 , 2 6 0 , 0 0 0 m2 to serve as both a platform for the food industry and a cultural hub.
Considering its geographical location at the heart of Northeast Asia’s air and shipping logistics network, FOODPOLIS is the ideal destination to establish a foothold from which to tap into Asia’s rapidly growing consumer markets, including China and Japan.
Korea’s economic development has been cited as a model case of economic growth due to its vibrant trade with other countries. Today, it remains essential for Korea to continue to expand its trade relations. The Korean government has concluded free trade agreements with 45 countries, with represented areas including the EU, ASEAN and USA and with the FTA network accounting for 61 percent of the global GDP.
FOODPOLIS proposes to establish a one-stop export support system to provide tenant businesses with comprehensive assistance, covering the entire export process. It will provide a trade education program to help tenant enterprises gain a basic understanding of the market as well. Also, with international recruitment activities expected to attract over-seas talent, FOODPOLIS will maintain a human resource database from universities to help compa-nies hire highly skilled employees. After all, Korea’s economic success is a result of its outstanding human resources. The country has been ranked 5t h globally for manufacturing productivity and the OECD has benchmarked the Korean workforce for its high level of collaboration, work ethic and higher education rate.
FOODPOLIS will also operate various research and develop-ment support systems that will enable tenant companies to take care of administrative procedures such as application, contract signing and process manage-ment at a one-stop venue. The program will support matching services, a domestic and overseas specialist database and an industry-university network to provide the technology needed by tenant companies.
Once a business has begun operations in FOODPOLIS, the cluster can offer one-stop comprehensive services that will include the assignment of a project manager to each case. In short, FOODPOLIS will serve as an ideal business partner, every step of the way.
Source : Invest Korea
