Special Economic Zone to be Designated Next Year

40 million pyeong of 3 western metropolitan districts like Songdo New Town of Incheon, Youngjong Island, and the Gimpo reclaimed land site will be designated as special economic zone, and developed generally during next year. Various measures will be taken to attract multinational companies into the special economic zones that a central administrative institute `special economic zone agency (tentative name) will be posted, both Korean and English are used, and foreign currencies are used in the zones.

The government held the national economy advisory meeting chaired by President Kim Dae-Jung on the 4th, and decided to finalize `the basic blueprint to develop Korea into the international business hub of Northeast Asia, ` and to prepare specific plans by June. This `blue print` is based on the vision of international business hub of Northeast Asia, which President Kim Dae-Jung announced at the New Year`s press conference, and merged development plans of west Metropolitan areas, which have been processed separately, adding improvement measures for kinds of systems and environments.

However, a stir of `for the sake of the election` is likely to be created along with the problem of the centralization of finance in the metropolitan areas, as the plan is a mid-long term plan taking 18 years, and it was announce just before the elections for local governments.

According to the blue print, 5 areas of △YoungJong Island(distribution and tour, leisure town) △Songdo New Town(international business, knowledge based industry) △Gimpo reclaimed land(flower export, residents and international finance) △Sangam-dong, Seoul(information, digital media) and △Goyang(tour, hotel and international exhibition) will be developed according to regional characters by 3 steps till 2020.

3 areas of Songdo New Town, Youngjong Island, and Gimpo reclaimed land are designated as special economic zones by the special law, which will be legislated this year, and Gwangyang and Busan will be designated later, which are constructing large scale harbors.

The government will attract regional headquarters of multinational corporations, foreign information technology and media firms, and establish leisure sports towns like theme parks. It will found special economic zone agency, and use both English and Korean, and make it possible to use foreign currencies. In addition, it will allow natives to establish international schools, and foreign broadcasts to inroad to Korea.

Rae-Jeong Park ecopark@donga.com · Joong-Hyun Park sanjuck@donga.com