Operation of IFEZA Needs to Bring Change
- A seminar on how to develop Korea's first FEZ


Lee Hwan-kyun, commissioner of the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority (IFEZA), has urged the central government to take extraordinary measures aimed at overhauling the process of recruiting excellent manpower of the authority.
IFEZA Commissioner Lee presented the demand in his lecture, titled with "Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ)'s Vision and Development Strategies," during a recent seminar. The Incheon Metropolitan City branch of the ruling Uri Party organized the seminar, titled with "Discussion on Current Status of Free Economic Zones and Successful Strategies for the Future," at a conference room of the National Assembly Parliamentarians' Hall on Dec. 3.
Rep. Yoo Pil-woo, the Incheon Metropolitan City branch policy-making committee of Uri Party presided over the discussions of the seminar.
Lee maintained that it is urgent to reform a process of hiring excellent manpower, which will work for the free economic zones (FEZs) in a bid to upgrade Korea's FEZs to the levels of global standards. Under the current system, IFEZA is required to obtain approval on hiring any gifted employee from the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, which normally takes at least two months, and it is impossible to secure qualified manpower, he said. The IFEZA chief also demanded that the central government delegate duties on solving such issues as the complex process of issuing licenses on development or dispatch capable officials of economic ministries to take charge of such responsibilities. Lee also suggested that any officials with the IFEZA considered to be doing a good job be given a reward in personnel change.
He said, "Development of IFEZ and promotion of Korea as the economic hub of Northeast Asia is being promoted as a core strategy of national economic renewal. We must realize that we are fighting time because we must complete all the key infrastructure within the next five years, hence the all-out support and cooperation from all policy-makers are needed for a timely completion of the key infrastructure projects and streamlining regulations".
Rep. Kim Jin-pyo, of Uri Party, former minister of finance and economy, noted that 70 percent to 80 percent of the complaints and grievances being filed with FEZs stems from an intervention of the central government. It is not easy to institutionalize a system of handing over the rights on administration, finance and personnel change to each FEZ authority chief due to conflicts of interest among the relevant government agencies, but an alternative should be contemplated to fill contract employees with competent, high-paying foreigners.
Rep. Kim argued that there are many cases in which councilors of the regional parliaments tend to intervene in the development of the FEZs, citing complaints by the residents, and the FEZ authorities need to be separated from the regional administrative agencies in the long-term perspective.
Lee Hun-jai, deputy prime minister-minister of finance and economy, said in his speech to the seminar that Incheon has a geographical advantage of reaching 43 cities with a population of more than 1 million within a flight time of three hours from Seoul, and if such a strong point is not fully utilized, it would hinder the development of Incheon as well as that of the nation. Incheon will have to exert itself to have its own competitive edge after taking a close look into the cases of its rival cities - Shanghai and Shenzen, said Lee, adding that he expressed the hope that the Incheon Free Economic Zone would publicize how much Incheon has been improved, during the 2008 Olympic Games and the Shanghai Expo of 2010.
As another presenter, Song Young-gil, lawmaker of Uri Party, said in his lecture, titled "Alternatives and Future Strategies for Successful Free Economic Zone," "We are facing critical disputes between different interest groups, especially over the issues on foreign schools and foreign hospitals. To solve the problems that are fundamental factors in the development of free economic zones, we are endeavoring at progressing the revision of the statutes related to education and hospitals, so that foreign institutions are allowed to provide services to Korean residents."
Addressing the establishment of foreign schools within the FEZ areas under the title "Opening the Education Market and Strengthening National Competitiveness," Rep. Lee Ju-ho, of the Grand National Party, emphasized that Singapore's "World Class University Program" calling for attracting 10 world-class universities in 10 years has paid off: The island state has successfully set up the branches of such prominent international universities as MIT, University of Chicago and INSEAD or other forms of schools.
Despite such unfavorable conditions as language barriers, such universities as MIT and Harvard have shown a keen interest in their advance to Korea, said Rep. Lee, adding that Korea needs to adopt the Singaporean approach rather than the failed Japanese method of easing entry restrictions on the market-opening in a negative manner. He argued that the educational market should be opened as part of national strategies to stoke up competition in the sector and upgrade the level of domestic higher educational institutions by inducing prestigious foreign universities, and it is not a matter of being delayed by extreme ideological strife and many conflicts of attribution. Efforts should be made to improve efficiency in the educational field and solve education disparity in the long-term perspective, the lawmaker added.
Lee Jae-hee, chairman of the presidential advisory committee on a logistics hub and now chairman of Unilever, said FEZ authorities have to have a new paradigm of personnel management in which officials with no proficiency in English assigned to such departments as public relations and FDI inducement should be replaced.
Cho Sung-ik, director-general of the FEZ Corps at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, said the corps, regional FEZ authority and local administrative body would share responsibility in a clearer manner to solve the personnel management problems, indicating a possible reshuffling of IFEZA. nw