The Gyeonggi Province delegation, which was headed by Governor Kim Moon-soo, returned to Korea on the afternoon of April 21 from their 4-night/5-day visit to the United States.

They carried out activities for attracting American businesses to invest in their province during their visit to the west coast of the United States, including their visiting Seattle. They attracted investments worth a total of 245 million USD from American businesses, which will create about 1,540 jobs.

Costco’s construction of a logistics base in the Second Poseung Industrial Complex and Shinsegae-Chelsea’s investment in the Siheung Outlet were the results of the strenuous efforts made by Governor Kim Moon-soo and officials from the Economy & Investment Office. The Investment Promotion Team collaborated closely with Costco since the very beginning, when the U.S.-based business was looking for a suitable site, while checking into the possibility that domestic SMEs might suffer financial losses due to Costco’s establishment of a logistics base. According to business observers, Shinsegae-Chelsea was able to make a decision on its selection of the outlet site more easily thanks to Gyeonggi Province’s presentation of relevant conditions, with the following factors being taken into account: the synergistic effects of neighboring facilities, transportation conditions, the population of nearby cities, and so on.

At a press conference that was held at the briefing room of the provincial office on the afternoon of April 22, Governor Kim Moon-soo said, “We saw that the unease felt by foreign investors due to North Korea’s threats was more serious than we had first thought. We can only revive the economy by striving to solve the problems related to regulations and citizens overall anti-business sentiments. We must do so in addition to the efforts made for the attraction of FDI.” What he said means that the country can attract large-scale investments from private businesses as these types of investments can garner much greater effects than the supplementary budget that was discussed at the National Assembly for pump-priming the economy, if the said problems are settled. Recently, Governor Kim Moon-soo talked Samsung Electronics into pushing ahead with the plan for the extension of two production lines at its semiconductor factory in Hwaseong, when the business expressed hesitation due to local residents’ protest demonstrations concerning the recent hydrofluoric acid leakage accident.

The delegation, which was headed by Governor Kim Moon-soo, paid inspection visits to a Boeing factory and to the Center for Commercialization (C4C) program of Washington State University during their visit to the United States. At the press conference, the governor said, “Our competitiveness in manufacturing compares favorably to that of the United States. I am thinking about a plan for collaboration between local SMEs and American businesses, with the former assuming production and the latter taking charge of R&D matters, for both local sales and exports to the United States.

Commenting on the future plan for attracting FDI and the provincial office’s support for it, a Gyeonggi Province official said, “First of all, we will strive to foster an environment that is conducive to FDI by presenting realistic conditions that can meet the demands of businesses. We will also develop programs for the systematic attraction of FDI and for providing assistance for domestic businesses’ supply of high-quality products to foreign businesses and their technological collaboration with foreign businesses, as well as providing comprehensive consulting to well-performing SMEs.”