Invest KOREA

Paju City in Gyeonggi Province has drawn 1.8 trillion won ($1.61 billion) in foreign direct investment (FDI) this year, accounting for 80 percent of the province's total FDI. Fast shedding its previous image as a border area, Paju is emerging as a corporate city and drawing domestic companies as well as foreign companies.

Home to 3,291 companies with a total employee count of 68,500, Paju's foreign investment this year came from ASE, a Taiwan-based non-memory semiconductor manufacturer, Idemitsu Kosan, a Japanese OLED manufacturer, and the Japan-based LCD panel manufacturer Nippon Electric Glass. Since July of 2010, the city has drawn domestic investment of 260 billion won.

Paju's appeal as an investment destination includes its 12 well-established industrial complexes and excellent transportation infrastructures including Incheon Airport and the Seoul-Munsan Highway. Last year, Gyeonggi Province inked an agreement with Italy's Ferrari to build by 2017 the Paju Fantasia City, a 3.08 trillion won project that will include an automotive theme park and commercial/accommodation facilities. Also to be established in Paju is a 1.2 trillion won-combined cycle power plant and research institute of E&S, an SK Group affiliate, as well as five more industrial complexes.

Paju officials have also been proactive about resolving the grievances of foreign investors, with their number of settlement cases increasing from 257 in 2008 to 1,307 in 2011.

Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (Sep. 4, 2012)

** This is the translation of a Korean article.