Dear Gyeonggi-do residents and 38,000 provincial officers! 

The morning of New Year has come. 
I would like to wish for development of Gyeonggi-do and Korea and health and happiness of the provincial residents. 

2004 was a year filled with difficulties. Political rivalry stained the government, and the economy worsened to burden our shoulders. Despite the unfavorable circumstance, Gyeonggi-do was able to talk towards its goal of becoming a “province of the world” due to your warm and continued support. 

The province put forward the effort to better the nation’s economic foundation by securing and expanding SOC and to prepare for the brighter future by housing high-end companies from abroad. It strived to improve the administrative services to create a business-friendly environment. It also encouraged corporate investment to generate more employment. 

“Making Good School,” “Saving Small Schools,” and “English Village” businesses promoted to supplement the public education system in fostering talents suitable for the global age became benchmark cases for the rest of the country. 

I would like to express my gratitude for your continued support that allowed the province to not lose focus even in the harshest of storms. 

Respected residents! 

2005 will be the “Year to Revive the Hope” in preparation for next ten years of the nation while also being the “Year of Harvest” for the current provincial administration’s three-year work. 

Provincial officials including myself will utilize fruits of our efforts from past few years in brightening the future of Korea. 

KINTEX will be opened in April and construction of LG-Phillips LCD Plant will be completed in June. High-end companies from overseas will find their home in Foreign Company-exclusive Industrial Complexes in Hyeongok, Jangan, and Munsan. The R&D Center business for development of Nano Fab and Bio technology will be aggressive pushed forward in 2005 as well. 

In the Visit Gyeonggi Year 2005, the province will host various international events such as International Peace Festival, World Ceramics Biennale, International Motor Show, and World Flower Exhibition Goyang. 

We will continue our effort in preparing the production bases through which the nation can be supported in 10 or 20 years. Emphasis will be given on housing advanced foreign companies and establishing R&D infrastructure. It will also strive to encourage production and investment by Korean companies while seek means to devise mutual development with the rest of the nation. 

Beloved residents of Gyeonggi-do! 

The best welfare is provided when the economy is vitalized and jobs are created. That is exactly what Gyeonggi-do will put its highest priority on employment generation in 2005. The most important thing in this difficult time is that we should not neglect our neighbors. There are underprivileged persons in every corner of society, and the province will carry out humane welfare administration by reaching out from the heart. 

Gyeonggi-do plans to promote various businesses that will lighten the pain in disability, old age, and sickness. It will provide continued and heightened support for rehabilitation system to solidify the social safety network. 

Improvement of the emergency medical system and the Pharm Bank business will better the quality of the province’s health services, and the “Gyeonggi Youth New Deal Business” will relieve the provincial community of the youth unemployment problem. 

Public Management of Environment business is becoming a new model in environment policy; we will strive to significantly cut down the air pollutant emission from Shihwa and Banweol Industrial Complexes to enhance the quality of life for residents in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. 

Family is the hopeful home for happiness. The province will provide support for this family to become the central unit of modern life through gender equality, teenage, and children policies. 

Respected countrymen! 

This year marks the 60th anniversary since independence as well as the 100th anniversary of signing of the shameful Eulsa Treaty. The nation was deeply scarred by the treaty, and it still experiences the pain by being divided into two. 

Government should prepare for the second independence, i.e., peaceful reunification of the nation by clarifying the national history and resolving related issues. One of the biggest obstacles that need to be addressed is the nuclear weapon that North Korea possesses. We will strive to guide North Korea on to the path of innovation and opening. 

Gyeonggi-do is the front line of the North-South confrontation, and it is the new home for the US Army in Korea. The province strongly hopes that the six-party meeting can be held successfully to resolve the nuclear weapon issue in mutual consent based on intimate cooperation with allies including the US. 

It also anticipates the coming of much effort to better the relations of two Koreas through summits as North Korea’s closest neighbor and the base for reunification. The province will push forward with creative exchange businesses to lead development of Gaeseong Industrial Complex and economic cooperation between the North and South Koreas. 

Respected residents of Gyeonggi-do and hardworking provincial officials! 

2005 is the year of rooster whose cry brings light of the dawn over darkness of the night. It will be a year when the darkness draped over the nation’s history will be lifted by hopeful light of the future. 

Excitements of visitors from across the world to KINTEX, light of LCD plant in Paju that will run night and day, and the music of peace and reunification from International Peace Festival will haul in the dawn for the nation. 

Age of conflicts, confrontation, and disintegration is over, the new age of cooperation and integration is about to begin. We should unite as one to promote social security and national economic development. 

2005 will be the “Year to Revive the Hope” for the nation as the hope for the future allows us to overcome the difficulty in the present time.

Once again, I ask for your support and cooperation in the province’s effort to play the Music of Hope from the people’s heart. 

Thank you. 

May your New Year be filled with happiness and health. 

January 1, 2005 

Gyeonggi-do Provincial Governor 

Sohn Hak-kyu