Government Adds Opportunity Development Zones in North Jeolla and South Gyeongsang... 1.7 Trillion Won in Corporate Investment

Fourth Round of Opportunity Development Zone Designations
Ulsan Zone Area Expanded

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on July 29 that it will newly designate Opportunity Development Zones in North Jeolla and South Gyeongsang Provinces, and will change the designated area of the Ulsan Opportunity Development Zone. This is the first additional designation this year, following three rounds of designations last year.

Opportunity Development Zones are investment attraction districts that offer not only tax and fiscal support but also improvements to residential conditions as a package, in order to promote corporate investment in non-metropolitan regions. With this designation, an Opportunity Development Zone covering 155,000 pyeong (512,000 square meters) will be established in Namwon, North Jeolla Province. Companies in the life care sector have already presented investment plans for Namwon.

In South Gyeongsang Province, a total of 671,000 pyeong (2.2 million square meters) spanning Miryang, Hadong, and Changnyeong will be newly designated as Opportunity Development Zones. In these areas, companies in the nano convergence industry, secondary battery materials, and mobility components sectors are planning to make new investments totaling approximately 1.7 trillion won.

In the case of Ulsan, the designated area in Nam-gu will be expanded from the existing 6,000 pyeong (20,000 square meters) to 11,000 pyeong (36,000 square meters) due to an increase in data center investment within the already designated zone. This follows the contract signed in June between SK and AWS (Amazon Web Services) to build an AI data center in Ulsan.

Notably, with this new designation, South Gyeongsang Province has become the first among the 14 non-metropolitan cities and provinces to fully utilize the legal area limit (2 million pyeong, 6.6 million square meters) for Opportunity Development Zones. However, since the government revised the notice in June to allow the area limit to be exceeded for foreign investment in non-metropolitan regions, South Gyeongsang Province will be able to designate additional zones if it attracts foreign investment in the future.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy plans to maintain close communication with local governments and companies to ensure that scheduled investments are carried out without setbacks, and will continue to promptly designate Opportunity Development Zones in response to corporate demand for regional investment.

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