Huge Progress at IFEZ

UN organizations locate offices in Songdo International City to boost the district’s reputation, help attract foreign investment

The City of Incheon’s ambitious plan to make itself a business hub in northeast Asia has been showing great progress as many foreign firms, famous universities and public organizations have either agreed or are in the process of building facilities to settle in the city’s free economic zone.
The UNESCAP affiliate APCICT or the Asia-Pacific Center for Information and Communication Technology Training opened its office in Songdo International City inside the Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ) recently. The center will provide training for public servants and people in the education industry in ESCAP member countries, along with advising services on information and communication technologies.
APCICT has become the first global public organization to set up office in Korea, followed by the Northeast Asia office of the International Strategy for Disaster Reductions (ISDR) in Songdo International City on July 11.
ISDR is a United Nations organization that trains experts at home and abroad in strategies to reduce disasters as an education and research institute and provides training on means of disaster prevention to government officials and civil organization members around the world.
ISDR is staffed by five UN employees and two employees from the Incheon Fire Prevention Authority to provide support to such countries as North Korea, Japan, Russia, Mongolia and Taiwan on disaster reduction.
Incheon will soon have the Northeast Asia branch of ESCAP open its office in the city. ESCAP has been pondering locating in a number of cities in Asia to provide its services to Northeast Asia, South Asia and Central Asia and has finally picked Incheon over other cities including Beijing, Incheon City officials said.
The Incheon office of ESCAP will provide support to countries in Northeast Asia including Korea, Japan, China, Russia and North Korea in the area of reducing disasters by coordinating international cooperation and support.
Besides those four UN organizations, the secretariat of the East Asia Australasia Flyaway (EAAF) opened its office in Incheon, followed by the opening of the UN’s 10th library in June.
Incheon plans to build a UN center in the Songdo International City by 2012 to attract over 30 UN organizations, an official of Incheon City said. He said the city expects that such a large number of offices of UN organizations will boost Korea and Incheon’s international image, which will be of great help in attracting foreign investments and conventions to Korea, especially in Incheon, thus creating many jobs.
The vision for IFEZ is to make the city a business hub of Northeast Asia, where people, business and nature co-exist in harmony and where international business, logistics and knowledge-based industry are operated in a dynamic way.
IFEZ will include an Industrial Innovation Cluster, Logistics Network and Financial Hub as an economic center of Northeast Asia. The mission of the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority is to open a new age for Korea.
The vision is based on such values as a global mind, professionalism, confidence and a service-oriented mind. With a global mind, IFEZ will face changes in the world environment actively and effectively with an open mind and an international insight. It is a core competitive edge that can materialize the IFEZ vision.
IFEZ chose ‘confidence’ as a key word in building a culture that values cooperation and mutually respects securing the trust of investors by providing quality service. IFEZ aims at building a financial hub to provide proactive support, such as one-stop service to assist in the success of investors. nw

Mayor Ahn Sang-soo of Incheon City.

(Photos clockwise) Commissioner Lee Heon-seok of the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority; A bird’s eye view of Songdo Int’l City being built inside the Incheon Free Economic Zone in Incheon, one of Incheon City’s ambitious plans to make itself an int’l business and financial hub in Northeast Asia; A bird’s eye view of the center of Songdo Int’l City; A water fountain to be built in the center of the planned city; A drawing of buildings in the planned city; A drawing of a shopping mall in the planned city; and Tall buildings to be built in downtown of Songdo Int’l City.