The Gyeonggi Provincial Office plans to create 15,000 jobs by attracting 35 foreign-based hi-tech businesses specializing in IT (information technology), NT (new technology), BT (biotechnology) and carmaking plus five world-class R&D facilities worth about $1.5 billion. The office has succeeded in attracting a total of $13.3 billion worth of investment from 88 foreign-based hi-tech businesses since July 2002, when Governor Sohn Hak-kyu was sworn in, including $1.38 billion worth of investment from 37 businesses, such as Toppan Photomasks, which created 14,000 jobs, in 2005. 

By region, the 40 businesses include 10 from Asia, including Japan, 20 from Americas, and 10 from Europe. 

To the said end, the investment attraction delegation headed by the Governor will be engaged in activities for attraction of investment in the U.S. in February, followed by in Japan in March. 

The provincial office will also hold large-scale explanatory sessions for investors in Korea in March, introducing an array of incentives and administrative support provided for hi-tech investors. 

The provincial office’s efforts for attraction of foreign-based hi-tech businesses and R&D facilities are based on the view that enhancement of the nation’s competitiveness in science and technology is the only way to ensure its survival in the era of globalization. The delegation headed by Mr. Sohn Hak-kyu has covered a total of 640,100km (more than fifteen times the circumference of the earth), visiting foreign countries to make the said efforts in the past three and half years. 

With many of the investing businesses having important source technologies, Gyeonggi Province has emerged as the hub for hi-tech industries, enjoying considerable effects of the transfer of important technologies to domestic businesses and creation of many jobs. 

Businesses that have decided to start operation in Gyeonggi in response to the provincial office’s overtures include: Siemens Medical of the U.S. (an ultrasonographic equipment manufacturer), LG Phillips LCD of the Netherlands (the No.1 LCD manufacturer in the world), Delphi of the U.S. (the world’s No.2 auto parts business), Thyssen of Germany (the world’s No.1 stainless steel manufacturer), Merck of Germany (the world’s largest TFT-LCD liquid crystal business), Toppan Photomasks of the U.S. (the world’s No.1 photomask manufacturer), and 3M of the U.S. (the world’s No.1 manufacturer of a film for highly luminant EL devices). 

The provincial office said that it would continue pushing ahead with the effort to help domestic businesses enhance their technological prowess particularly in several areas with infinite potential for growth, i.e. IT, BT, NT and R&D. 

A Gyeonggi Province official said, “We plan to reach the target of 100th business which has decided to invest in the province in the first half of the year through continued activities for attraction of investors, including dispatch of the delegation to the U.S. early the year.”