Foreigners’ Investment District to be Designated at Yoido

When a foreign investor purchases the Small and Mid-sized Enterprise Exhibition Center site of 5,000 pyung, the land will be designated as a `foreigners’ investment district` whose investor will benefit tax deduction such as income tax and corporation tax. It is the first case for Seoul to plan to designate a foreigners’ investment district.

The Seoul city government announced yesterday the plan to induce foreigners` investment because the open bid on last 30th failed to find a purchaser of the city-owned land.

A representative of the city government said that ``Although there was no buyer at the last bid, we will not lower the price (89 billion won). And especially, in order to induce foreign capital, we will loosen other conditions and, at the same time, closely discuss with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy on the plan to designate the Yoido Tourist Hotel site as a foreigners` investment district``.

In particular, the tourist hotel site will be designated as a foreigners` investment district, and at least 30 million dollars should be invested.

On the other hand, the Hanganjin site which is another candidate site for open sales, was excluded from the designation, because the site will be developed as a family hotel district.

Another representative of the city government said that ``We will try to find a purchaser at the second bid. But if the bids continue to fail, we will find alternatives such as the change of use of the site.``

Jung Yeon-Wook jyw11@donga.com