GANGWON-DO < invest Korea

Gangwon Province’s Global Business Bureau announced last week that development of products to attract foreign direct investment will be one of the core agenda items next year.

It shows a change in the province’s direction, that its focus will be shifted from passive investment promotion by providing cheap sites and administrative and financial supports to active attraction by developing competitive products.

It is based on an assumption that incentives, which most local government use to attract investment, no longer gives a competitive advantage.

Gangwon Province plans to foster customized investment products by region and industry to build the province’s competitiveness in attracting foreign investment.

Chuncheon’s medicine and biotechnology industries, Wonju’s parts and medical equipment industry and Gangreung’s tourism industry are those Gangwon will focus.

Based on these products, the province will develop a competitive foreign investment promotion project through cooperation with companies.

It will also build a database to support joint ventures with foreigners and endeavor to have a foreign investment zone.

Gangwon will also identify new cooperation projects with regions which it had exchanges with, and plans to increase exports with a health and medical team which consists of members from the province, hospitals and medical equipment manufacturers.

Lee Wook-jae, head of the Global Business Bureau, noted that it is the ripe time to bring in results based on exchanges it held with other regions, adding that the he will focus on attracting foreign investment.

Source: Newsis (Sep. 19, 2013)

** This article was translated from the Korean.