– Succeeded in attracting $141 million worth of investment from 10 businesses (four of the U.S. and six of Japan 

○ The Gyeonggi Provincial Office’s U.S./Japan Hi-Tech Business Investment Attraction Corps led by Governor Sohn Hak-gyu returned home after successfully carrying out the activities to attract a total of $141 million from ten businesses during the six-day visit to the two countries. 

○ With the decisions made for investment in the province (worth $92 million by four U.S. businesses, including 3M, and $49 million by six Japanese businesses, including ULVAC), it is expected that hi-tech businesses, such as those specializing in TFT-LCD parts and automotive parts, will take a larger share in the province’s entire industries. 

○ Business watchers say that the decisions of foreign-based hi-tech businesses for investment in the Gyeonggi Province is attributable to the fact that the automotive parts cluster linking Paju, Pyeongtaek, Hwaseong and Yongin, along with the West Coast LCD-Belt linking Paju, Pyeongtaek and Asan, emerges as a competitive industrial site in Northeast Asia. 

○ It is noteworthy that Lear and 3M of the U.S. that responded positively to the Corps’ efforts for investment attraction are listed in the Fortune’s Global 500 and thus expected to exert positive influence on Korean businesses in terms of technology and management skills. 

○ Two affiliates of ULVAC of Japan, for one, have decided to make additional investment in the Hyeongok Leased Foreign Investment Zone in Pyeongtaek, brightening the future of the TFT-LCD parts industry in the province. 

○ Also, with the decision on large-scale investment by Hitachi Metals Ltd., Mikuni, ULVAC, ULVAC’s affiliates (ULVAC and VMC), Nippon Chemicon and a business just known as “A” (an LCD parts manufacturer), which are leading TFT-LCD parts and raw material businesses in Japan, the province is expected to emerge as a mecca of the display industry centered around leased foreign investment industrial complexes in Pyeongtaek, Eoyeon-Hansan, Hyeongok, Chupal, Poseung and Hwaseong. 

○ On September 7, right before his returning home, Gyeonggi Governor Sohn Hak-gyu signed MOUs with “A” and Nippon Chemicon (concerning the former’s investment related to an LCD parts manufacturing facility and the latter’s $10 million investment related to a TFT-LCD module manufacturing facility). 

○ The Gyeonggi Province created approx. 11,000 jobs related to 40 businesses in 2004 alone, as a result of investment attraction activities made on a total of five occasions in the U.S., Japan and Europe. A total of 22,000 new jobs were created with the investment of $11,872 million from 50 businesses during Governor Sohn Hak-gyu’s term of office. Business watchers say that such efforts for attraction of investment have contributed greatly to the development of the automotive parts and TFT-LCD parts industries in the province. 

○ It is expected that hi-tech businesses’ investment decisions on establishment of parts/materials manufacturing facilities that the Gyeonggi Province attracted in 2004 will have high effects related to import substitution and technological transfer, in addition to creation of new jobs.