Inspire Resort Construction Subcontracting by Incheon Companies Only 1%... Civic Groups Say "Incheon City Is Standing By"

A civic group in Incheon has strongly criticized the low subcontracting participation rate of local construction companies in the construction of the Inspire Entertainment Complex Resort being promoted on Yeongjongdo.

On the 24th, the Incheon Peace Welfare Solidarity issued a statement claiming, "Inspire Phase 1 is being constructed by Hanwha Construction, which subcontracted about 886.5 billion KRW out of 1.2137 trillion KRW to around 180 companies, but only 7 companies from the Incheon area received 16.3 billion KRW, accounting for just 1.34% of the construction cost."

The group pointed out, "The 'Ordinance on the Promotion of the Local Construction Industry and Protection of Subcontractors in Incheon,' enacted in 2011, encourages the Mayor of Incheon to maximize joint contracts and subcontracting rates with local businesses and mandates that the ordering party recommend a subcontracting rate of 70% or more to local companies. However, until the participation of local construction companies in the Inspire project hit rock bottom, the Incheon city government and the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority remained inactive."

Construction of the Inspire Entertainment Complex Resort Arena is in full swing ahead of its opening later this year.
[Photo provided by Mohegan Inspire]

The Incheon Peace Welfare Solidarity proposed that, considering that 80% of the construction industry in Incheon is in the private sector, the Incheon city government should operate a permanent task force to increase the participation rate of local construction companies. Along with this, they also issued a warning to Mohican Inspire, which is promoting the complex resort project, and Hanwha Construction.

The group stated, "Inspire and Hanwha Construction promised at least 10% participation of local companies in subcontracting, but the actual rate was only in the 1% range, which not only broke trust with the local community but also treated Incheon as an afterthought. If they do not present a concrete plan to increase local company participation, we will launch a campaign to remove them."

Meanwhile, the Inspire Entertainment Complex Resort is scheduled to open within this year. Currently, the main buildings of the resort have completed their framework and exterior work, and interior facility construction is underway. The three hotel towers (1,275 rooms), Korea’s first multi-purpose indoor professional performance arena (with a capacity of 15,000 seats), the indoor Water Dome (Splash Bay, totaling 9,500㎡), and the Family Park (100,000㎡) are set to open within the year, while the foreigner-only casino will begin operations from the first quarter of next year after receiving a 5-star hotel rating.

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