GANGWON-DO < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

Gangwon Province announced on Jan. 24 that it revised its target for investment promotion to 1.02 trillion KRW, up 85 billion KRW from 935 billion KRW in last year.

Behind the revised figure lies the emergence of the province as a favorite investment environment, due to its hosting of Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, its enhancing status as a new metropolitan area, its strengths in ocean logistics centering around the east sea port, various natural resources including magnesium and clean environment.

The province selected five major strategies for balanced development, such as customized investment promotion activities, expanding strategic industrial complexes and attracting large companies.

Customized investment promotion activities include efforts to intensively attract foreign companies to the Olympic Special Zone and east sea areas. The efforts are designed to utilize investment condition of the Olympic Special Zone, Free Economic Zone and Free Trade Zone and connect the areas with POSCO Magnesium Smelting Complex.

While the frontier area focuses on call centers and general manufacturing and central region on medical equipment, medicine and bio industry, southern Gangwon Province concentrates on renewable energy and sport industry, eastern area on nonferrous metal parts and materials and Olympic Special Zone on the sport industry.

In addition, the province will expand regional strategic industrial complex to create favorable investment environment. It is planning to establish 20 industrial complexes by 2018 and to develop national or public land and Limited Development District into industrial complexes to allow companies to occupy the complexes at affordable prices.

The province will promote quality growth by attracting large companies that are in partnership with an individual specialized industry. For instance, Chucheon is in partnership with IT, BT and CT-related large companies, Wonju and Hongcheon with Samsung Medicine and Gangreung with POSCO.

Gangwon also plans to create one or two specialized tourism complexes around Baekdudaegan district (forests), eastern sea district (ocean) and inland district (lake).

It will attract R&D research institutes to secure new growth engines, including bio convergence, nonferrous metal materials medical convergence and ocean resources, in partnership with specialized industries.

It also plans to attract Japanese parts and materials companies to Bukpyeong Industrial Complex and utilize its advantage of being adjacent to Olympic Special Zone and Seoul Metropolitan area to entice leading foreign investment companies to do business in Gangwon.

Jang Cheol-gyu, head of investment promotion division, said, "We will focus more on the differences investment could make, instead of investment promotion in itself, to make its benefits spread across the whole province.

Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (Jan. 24, 2012)

**This is an English translation of a Korean news article.