Gyeonggi Province has been making efforts night and day to promote globalization, and its efforts have paid off.

A Gyeonggi delegation, led by Governor of Gyeonggi Province Kim Moon-Soo, visited Dalian (China) on the weekend of July 18th and 19th, for a tour of STX’s Dalian plant. The purpose of the visit to Dalian was to learn from the efforts of Liaoning (China) to attract foreign investment and to ease regulations hindering the economic growth of the Province. Liaoning’s efforts resulted in the successful attraction of STX.

Accelerating its activities for global exchanges and cooperation, Gyeonggi Province entered into sisterhood relations with Liaoning in 2009. The Province is also preparing to establish sisterhood ties with Vietnam in the second half of the year. When this partnership building process is complete, the province will have successfully established sisterhood ties with three regions in a single year.

The province formed sisterhood ties with Hebei (China) on June 22nd, 2009, following systematic negotiations and efforts. Considering the population, economic size and area of Hebei, it is expected that sisterhood relations with Hebei will significantly contribute to the economic growth of both provinces when full-fledged inter-regional exchanges take place. In addition, as Hebei is now emerging as a major pillar of the pan-Balhae Bay economic zone, sisterhood ties with Hebei will further stimulate economic exchanges and trade with China.

The establishment of sisterhood ties with Vietnam, one of the world’s emerging economies, is also recognized as a major achievement. Vietnam is an emerging country in Southeast Asia, and has benchmarked Korea as a model for post-war economic growth. In response to growing demand in the Vietnamese market, leading businesses including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are now engaged in diverse marketing activities to enter the Vietnamese market.

Gyeonggi Province has laid the foundation for Vietnamese market entry by businesses of the province through the development of sisterhood ties with two regions (Hanoi, Nghe An Province) in Vietnam that are focusing on economic growth. As the sisterhood ties will involve exchanges in diverse sectors including culture, sports, agriculture and R&D, complementary products will advance into the markets of each country through the steering committees of both parties.

Gyeonggi Province’s global mindset is based on the belief that strengthened global competitiveness will bring economic growth for the province, as Korea now has access to the world’s largest market, following its conclusion of FTAs with the US and the EU.

The province is now working to reinforce local diplomatic skills and coordination for exchanges and cooperation as part of its efforts to improve its global mindset. With the belief that the diplomatic capability of local governments will determine national development, the province will host special lectures by inviting diplomatic experts, improving the language skills of public officers with the help of native speakers, improving presentation skills on the global stage and improving global etiquette for diplomacy. For exchange and cooperation programs related to support for foreigners, the province will plan, operate and coordinate various international exchange programs with help of interpreters from the economic investment office.