The Most Business-friendly City in South Korea

The popularity of Icheon, Gyeonggi Province is on the increase as a garden city in the vicinity of Seoul that can be reached in 40 minutes or so from the capital city. The following is an interview with Icheon City mayor Cho Byung-don.

Please explain about your city’s Chamshimin Icheon Happiness Sharing Campaign.

In a word, this campaign is for each one in the city to care more about the others so various forms of social violence can be eradicated and more helping hands can reach those in need of them. It consists of 12 action plans such as strict compliance with traffic regulations and voluntary cleaning of spaces near one’s house or store. This campaign is best characterized by being led by citizens themselves. I hope this campaign will spread to the entire country and further improve the dignity of South Korea as a whole.

It is expected that Icheon will have more floating population than now once the motorway between Seongnam and Janghowon and the dual-track railway between Seongnam and Yeoju are opened to the public.

I think so, too. Test operations of the railway connecting Seongnam and Yeoju via Icheon are scheduled for June before its regular service starting in late August. Three stations, Shindun, Icheon and Bubal, are slated to be housed in Icheon City and Seoul can be reached in about 40 minutes from the stations.

The motorway is to be opened to the public next year. The six intersections to be built in the Icheon section of the motorway will be connected to various local roads and national highways for easier access to regions such as Seongnam, Bundang, Seoul and many more.

In addition, railways between Wonju and Gangneung and between Yeoju and Wonju are on the anvil in line with the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics along with railway construction projects for linking Icheon to Gangneung across the Korean Peninsula and for linking Bubal to Mungyeong via Chungju. The first phase of the project between Icheon and Chungju kicked off in November last year. The railway between the two cities is scheduled to become available in 2019, two years ahead of the completion of the Chungju-Mungyeong section.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry picked Icheon in September last year as the most business-friendly city in South Korea. What do you think is the reason?

The Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry made the announcement after looking into 33 specific indices of 228 local governments of the country classified into the five categories including assistance for business attraction, assistance for industrial complexes and elimination of environmental regulations. Nonetheless, Icheon still has a far way to with regard to metropolitan area regulations and so on. According to the current Seoul Metropolitan Area Readjustment Planning Act, the entire Icheon City is a natural conservation zone where factory construction cannot exceed an area of 1,000 m2 and a factory site area exceeding 60,000 m2 is prohibited. Besides, even the factories set up before the revision of the act in 1983 can be expanded only within 1,000 m2. These excessive regulations should be eliminated right away.

Icheon recorded the highest employment rate in Gyeonggi Province last year. How did it do that?

At present, the Icheon Job Placement Center has three public officers and four professional job consultants providing customized career consulting for citizens of all ages. Between 2010 and February this year, 32,000 job seekers were registered with the center and 21,000 of them succeeded in finding a job. We hold group job interviews on the 19th day of every month. An average of 20 companies and 200 job seekers have participated in the event each year.

It is expected that demands for medical and education services and the like will be on the rise along with an increase in population. How is the city preparing?

We have carried out various mid-term and long-term tasks in the framework of the Comprehensive Education Development Plan since as early as 2008, examples of which include the already completed Icheon English Village, teachers’ apartments, Hyoyang and Cheongmi Libraries and dormitories for high school students in various locations in the city. At the same time, the ICHEONian Scholarship has been granted, three million own per year for up to three years per student, to a large number of students in the city.

In the medical field, the first regional emergency medical center in the eastern region of the province was opened in Icheon two years ago. In addition, the Icheon Medical Center has provided an integrated nursing service since April 15 this year with the construction of a general hospital capable of accommodating 300 patients at the same time scheduled to start in September. This hospital is slated to open in June 2018.

How is the construction of the Icheon Ceramic Art Village going now?

The ceramic art village is currently under construction in a 405,900 m2 area in the vicinity of the Shindun Station at an investment of 73 billion won. The construction is to be completed in the second half of this year and then spaces will be set up to show 221 exhibition items ranging from antique furniture and sculpture to woodcraft items as well as pottery. There, top-class artisans will show creative activities and various fields of arts will be combined with one another to create synergy effects. It is expected that more than 10 million people will visit the village a year.

Icheon City is planning to build a theme park in honor of Seo Hui, a well-renowned scholar and diplomat in the era of Goryeo. What is the current state of progress?

He was born in Sanchon-ri, Bubal-eup located in Icheon. The theme park in honor of him is being built in a 142,000 m2 area on Mt. Hyoyang in Sanchon-ri. The 13 billion-won project started in 2011 and is about to finish in the first half of this year.

Icheon City has been engaged in various activities in honor of the esteemed historical figure. For instance, it set up a bust in the Korea National Diplomatic Academy building in October 2009 and has held various cultural and scholarly events in his honor since 2007. The Seo Hui Theme Park will be home to a history museum, beautiful sculpture parks and pavilions and the like serving the same purpose.