From among all of the metropolitan councils in Korea, Gyeonggi Province has been recognized for its outstanding investment promotion performances.

During the “Foreign Company Day 2013” event at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul on the 30^th of October, the provincial government was awarded with the Presidential Prize by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, in the category of the regional government with the best investment promotion merit. They were awarded in front of about 400 attendees such as the CEOs of foreign-investment companies, diplomatic envoys, investment promotion authorities, and others.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy evaluated 17 metropolitan councils according to their investment promotion history, investment promotion activities such as PR and dispatching special task forces, improving investment conditions, resolving the difficulties of foreign investment companies, and other follow-up projects, and Gyeonggi Province won the highest and best balanced scores in all of these fields.

Gyeonggi Province commented that its aggressive and specialized strategies and multi-dimensional follow-up operations are the basis of their winning the prize.

In 2013, Gyeonggi Province rearranged its industry-based system investment promotion departments into a region-based one to carry out specialized strategies, such as holding investment briefings and sending task forces / working groups to each region of the such as North America, Europe, Asia, and etc. Such efforts resulted in investments of 2.5 billionUSD from 18 companies (1.94 billion USD from 8 Japanese companies, 265 million USD from 7 U.S. companies, and 43 million USD from 3 European companies).

The provincial government designated Gyeonggi Urban Innovation Corporation as the official management agency for 8 foreign investment complexes in the province to provide better management and support for foreign investment companies.

Gyeonggi Province was the first to set up a Foreign Investment Support Center from among all other Korean metropolitan councils in. The province did so in 2006 to facilitate corporate activities and the early settlement of foreign companies that made investment decisions. It has also worked on tailored education support project, employment and training subsidy project, and a surrounding public transportation improvement project, as well as improving investment conditions with projects such as corporate management support in 6 categories, including law, labor, etc.

A Gyeonggi province official said “Our promotion activities will involve collaborating with special organizations per industry around the world to attract the Asian offices of R&D companies and global enterprises that will contribute to the globalization of Gyeonggi. We’re also planning to invite ‘hidden champions’ in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, which are the usual big-time investors, and businesses from other emerging economies.”