Facilitating Foreign Investors
- Seoul City breaks ground for Yongsan Foreign Schools

The Seoul Metropolitan City broke ground on constructing Yongsan Foreign Schools April 6 with a number of dignitaries both foreign and domestic attending led by Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak. Park Yong-song, chairman of the Korea Foreign School Foundation and Vice Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Cho Hwan-ik also attended the ceremony held at the old water treatment facility site in Bokwang-dong, in Yongsan, Seoul. Amb. David Taylor from New Zealand was among foreign guests, along with C.F.Murphy, the ambassador from Ireland.
The school scheduled to be opened in the second half of next year, is surrounded by many foreign residents living space and their work, close to Mt. Nam.
Seoul Mayor Lee said the school's location is very good as it is surrounded by lots of greeneries on the slope of Mt. Nam one of the best natural environment in Seoul with convenient transportation and by the Han River.
The school's playground will be equipped with a drainage system, while it is built to be a three above ground floors with a basement.
The school will include facilities for a kindergarten to high school with the number of students totaling about 1,000. It will have a playground, an athletic center and an auditorium, among other amenities.
The school site about 7,000 pyeong in size will be on lease from Seoul City for 50 years and extendable for another 50 years. The Korea Foreign School Foundation will pick up the 20 billion won tab for the foreign school with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy sharing 10 billion won in building cost, Jeon Sung-soo, head of the Foreign Capital Inducent Office of Seoul city, said.
Seoul City expects the school will be instrumental in attracting additional foreign capital to the city with its international scale and facilities. Jeon said the school would help relieve some of the problems that foreign residents face in Korea, including the lack of proper education, medical and housing facilities for foreign nationals. He said at the present time, the ratio of foreign students currently in Seoul has not yet been determined and the foundation will assign the construction of schools for foreign students as the need rises and quality school facilities would go a long way in attracting foreign investments in the country, the section head said.
There currently are 16 foreign schools in the country, which is not enough compared to 62 in Hong Kong, and 26 in Singapore. Foreign residents suggested building more foreign schools for children of foreign residents in Korea through various channels open to them including FIAC and town meetings hosted by Seoul City.
Jeon said Seoul needs to attract more foreign direct investment to be a business hub in Northeast Asia and the target will be achieved when it builds enough foreign schools to alleviate one of the pressing problems for foreign investors.
Currently, there are 114,685 foreign residents in Seoul about 1 percent of the city's total population, with 8,963 of them residing in Yongsan next to 9,628 registered in Yongdeungpo in Seoul, having the largest number of foreign residents. nw