Attracting 51 Trillion Won Investment in 9 Free Economic Zones... Creating 210,000 Jobs by 2031

Development Vision and Goals by Economic Free Zone ? Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Dongwoo Lee] Nine economic free zone authorities nationwide plan to attract an additional investment of 51 trillion won and expand resident businesses by 6,600 by 2031. They aim to create 210,000 jobs by strengthening differentiation among economic free zones through building industry-academia-research innovation clusters and advancing core industries.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 14th that the Economic Free Zone Committee held at the Korea Technology Center in Seoul discussed the mid- to long-term development plans of the nine economic free zone authorities.

Specifically, the plans include long-term development visions and core strategic industry specialization and cultivation strategies for each economic free zone in industrial sectors such as ▲bio and healthcare ▲mobility ▲energy ▲advanced technology and components ▲logistics ▲leisure and tourism.

In the bio and healthcare sector, the Incheon economic free zone will secure a full-cycle value chain to expand biopharmaceutical production. Based on 2020 figures of 2 trillion won in sales, about 5,000 employees, and a production capacity of 560,000 liters, they plan to increase these to 15 trillion won in sales, about 20,000 employees, and a production capacity of 1 million liters by 2031. The Chungbuk economic free zone will secure new drug pipelines and concentrate on new drug development through industry-academia-research collaboration and international cooperation. Daegu-Gyeongbuk will promote the advancement of medical technology by building infrastructure for smart medical device manufacturing and utilization, including the Future Medical Technology Research Building, Advanced Clinical Trial Center, and Medical Technology Testing Institute.

In the mobility sector, the Gyeonggi economic free zone will attract small and venture companies and provide demonstration environments by utilizing existing clusters such as the nearby automobile industry conditions, Future Mobility Center, and Intelligent Unmanned Mobility Research Institute. The Chungbuk economic free zone will focus on fostering urban air mobility (UAM) industry, related parts industries, and aircraft maintenance industries in connection with Cheongju Airport. The Gwangyang Bay economic free zone plans to expand the production scale of cathode materials from 5,000 tons in 2019 to 85,000 tons in 2023. They aim to become a secondary battery production base through new precursor factory attraction and linkage with local research institutes.

In the energy sector, the Ulsan economic free zone will expand hydrogen utilization such as hydrogen energy (fuel cells) and mobility (hydrogen electric vehicles and hydrogen trams) to establish itself as a global hydrogen-leading city. The goal is to have a fuel cell power generation capacity of 250 megawatts (MW) and distribute 67,000 hydrogen electric vehicles along with hydrogen buses and trams by 2030. The Gwangju economic free zone will focus on the commercialization of new technologies and services in smart grids and energy storage systems (ESS) centered on the Energy Convergence Complex Comprehensive Support Center. The East Coast economic free zone plans to build a hydrogen storage and transportation cluster linked with the liquefied hydrogen industry regulatory free zone and renewable energy-based R&D projects.

Regarding advanced technology and components, the Busan-Jinhae, Daegu-Gyeongbuk, and Gwangju economic free zones will support the creation of new industries related to artificial intelligence (AI), information and communication technology (ICT), and robotics technology. In particular, the Gwangju economic free zone plans to focus on talent development and startup ecosystem creation based on the national AI-centered industrial convergence cluster, which will be completed in 2024. In the logistics sector, the Incheon and Busan-Jinhae economic free zones will establish a Northeast Asia logistics hub by linking new industries such as advanced logistics platforms, e-commerce, and aircraft maintenance (MRO) based on world-class airport and port infrastructure. In the leisure and tourism sector, the Incheon economic free zone will develop three integrated resorts (Paradise, RFKR, Inspire) on Yeongjongdo Island with an investment of 6 trillion won to foster it as a Northeast Asia tourism hub.

The government plans to continuously review additional development demands for each economic free zone, focusing on actual demand for investment in core strategic industries to ensure smooth progress of the economic free zone authorities’ development plans. For economic free zones with excellent investment attraction and job creation performance, the government will strengthen infrastructure support and customized corporate support programs.

Jin Jong-wook, head of the Economic Free Zone Planning Group, said, “We will closely cooperate to ensure that the basic plans for economic free zones established by the government and the development plans of each local government are organically linked so that economic free zones can lead the creation of new growth engines and revitalize regional economies.”

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