Attracting Investment

Lee Byoung-gook, commissioner of the Korea Agency for Saemangeum Development & Investment, delivers an introductory speech to the German business circle at Ritz-Carlton Seoul on Jan. 20.
Lee Byoung-gook, commissioner of the Korea Agency for Saemangeum Development & Investment, delivers an introductory speech to the German business circle at Ritz-Carlton Seoul on Jan. 20.

 

Holding the Saemangeum Investment Briefing for German business leaders at the Ritz-Carlton Seoul on Jan. 20, the Korea Agency for Saemangeum Development & Investment (KASDI) set out to attract investment from German companies.

Nearly 100 business leaders attended the meeting, including German Ambassador to Korea Rolf Mafael and Thomas Geyer, president of the Korean-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

An official from KASDI said, “Since the Samangeum Industrial Complex focuses on fostering the auto instrument cluster and the fine chemistry and material instrument cluster, German businesses are expected to invest. We will offer excellent benefits to firms occupying the complex, including providing the site at low prices, taxation support, construction of rental housing complexes, and one-stop customs clearance.”

As Korean and Chinese leaders agreed to create a Korea-China economic cooperation complex in Saemangeum together in July last year, the SIC as a bridgehead for the advancement of China has drawn attention at home and abroad. On Jan. 15, the KASDI presented a concrete plan in a business report for the President that it would create the “Korea-China FTA Industrial Complex” with a size of 3.3 million square meters inside of the SIC and foster it as the special economic cooperation zone in the world.

Currently, KASDI has made agreements for investment worth 13 trillion won (US$11.96 billion) with 81 companies.

Japan’s Toray and solar power company OCI are constructing the production facilities, and Belgium’s Solvay will begin to construct the plant in April. Toray is planning to build the integrated production system for PPS, a lightweight engine material for electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles, in the SIC and export most of the products to China. Solvay will produce silica, an environmentally-friendly tire material, and export it to Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

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