Incheon, Busan, and Jinhae Economic Free Zones Achieve 'S Grade' Last Year

7 Economic Free Zones' Last Year Performance Presentation and the 118th Economic Free Zone Committee Meeting
Approval of Land Expansion for Complex Facilities in Incheon Yeongjong International City... "Promotion of Complex Resort Development"

A view of District 11, Songdo International City, Incheon. (Photo by Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The government announced that, as a result of the performance evaluation of seven economic free zones last year, the Incheon and Busan-Jinhae free economic zones received an S grade (excellent).

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the 118th Economic Free Zone Committee meeting on the 16th, where it reviewed and approved three agenda items, including last year's free economic zone performance evaluation results and follow-up measures, through written deliberation.

◆Incheon, Busan-Jinhae 'S Grade'... Expansion of Songdo Bio Cluster, etc.

Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

First, last year, the Incheon and Busan-Jinhae free economic zones achieved an S grade. In 2018, Incheon and Daegu-Gyeongbuk received S grades. Three free economic zones received an A grade, and two received a B grade.

Incheon showed excellent results in building an industry-academia-research collaboration ecosystem, including the expansion of the Songdo Bio Cluster, establishment of a startup park, and attraction of a Stanford University-affiliated research institute.

Busan-Jinhae received high marks for laying the foundation of an innovation ecosystem and efficient organizational management, such as creating an electric vehicle cluster within the international industrial logistics district and establishing a dedicated department for innovative growth.

The committee evaluated that last year the free economic zones established innovation ecosystem foundations focused on key industries. Representative examples include Incheon’s Startup Park and Bio Cluster, Daegu-Gyeongbuk’s Suseong Medical District Smart City, and Chungbuk’s K-Beauty Street.

Progress was also made in development projects by individual districts. The development project implementation rate for 90 districts last year was 77.8%, up 0.6 percentage points from 77.2% in 2018.

However, due to the impact of the US-China trade dispute and Japanese export restrictions, foreign-invested companies’ investment amount decreased by 39.64%, from $1.69 billion in 2018 to $1.02 billion last year.

◆Promotion of Incheon International Airport Complex Resort Development... Announcement of Development Plan Amendment

Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

The amendment plan for the development of the 'Incheon International Airport District' in Yeongjong International City, Incheon Free Economic Zone, was also announced on the same day.

Approval was given to expand the complex facility site and change land use classifications to promote complex resort development and stimulate investment attraction.

The area for tourism and accommodation land will be reduced by 967,000㎡, while the complex facility land will be expanded from 946,000㎡ to 1,832,000㎡. New accommodation facility land will be increased by 79,000㎡. The project period was extended by five years, from 2022 to 2027.

The committee expects to attract more than 2.4 million overseas tourists annually and create approximately 15,000 new jobs in the service industry.

On the same day, the operational guidelines for the national subsidy project supporting the attraction of foreign educational and research institutions were partially revised.

The guidelines include establishing support standards related to the establishment of foreign educational institutions for kindergarten, elementary, and secondary education within the free economic zones and transferring the approval authority to the relevant education superintendent. The committee anticipates that this will improve living conditions for foreigners.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.