At the end of August, the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority (IFEZ Authority) announced a comprehensive strategy to intensively foster the entire city of Incheon into a true global financial hub by organically linking the network of international organizations in Songdo International City with the private and digital financial infrastructure of Cheongna International City.
Songdo International City is home to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the World Bank Group Korea.
Cheongna International City is preparing for the large-scale relocation of Hana Financial Group’s headquarters.
This policy announcement clearly embodies Incheon City’s ambitious vision to create powerful industrial synergies by combining its public financial platform centered on international organizations with the cutting-edge digital financial capabilities of private companies in the city.
The foundation for Songdo International City to become a world-class international financial hub was laid in 2012 when Incheon successfully attracted the secretariat of the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
At that time, Korea was confirmed as the final hub after overcoming fierce competition with five formidable candidate nations including Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Poland, and Namibia.
Key strengths included excellent geographical accessibility to Incheon International Airport, state-of-the-art international business support facilities, superior urban competitiveness of Incheon as an eco-friendly smart city, the abundant global talent infrastructure of the Incheon Global Campus, and a strong determination of the Korean central government and Incheon Metropolitan City to bring in the secretariat of the Green Climate Fund (GCF).
As a result, the GCF which officially launched at the Songdo G Tower in December 2013 has rapidly grown into the world’s largest specialized climate fund. It possesses a massive portfolio of over $20 billion and a total of 354 new climate projects as of 2026.
Currently, approximately 400 professionals from about 70 countries are stationed at the Songdo headquarters, and the organization has established an international standing where over 350 financial and government officials from around the world gather at regularly held GCF board meetings in Songdo.
Subsequently, global international financial institutions’ settlement in Songdo accelerated further as the World Bank Group’s Korea office also opened in Songdo in December 2013.
The World Bank Group continues to operate its Songdo office as a global center for innovation and technology that actively supports sustainable development.
It is successfully serving as a key channel for widely sharing and disseminating Korea’s accumulated know-how in advanced economic development policies and expertise in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector to developing countries around the world.
Meanwhile, the Hana Dream Town Project in Cheongna International City, where Hana Financial Group’s core financial capabilities are concentrated in one place, is bearing fruit and is newly emerging as a key axis of the private and digital finance ecosystems.
Following the signing of an agreement to establish the financial town in 2012, the Phase 1 Integrated Data Center (2017) and Phase 2 Hana Global Campus (2019) were successfully completed. In May of this year, Hana Financial Group Headquarters, a core facility of Phase 3, was successfully wrapped up.
The Hana Financial Group headquarters in Incheon’s Cheongna International City. (Photo: Hana Financial Group)
Starting this September, approximately 2,200 employees from Hana Financial Group and 10 major Hana Financial Group affiliates including Hana Bank, and Hana Securities, will sequentially move into Cheongna.
This will complete a massive private financial hub where a total of around 4,000 financial and IT professionals including existing IT personnel will gather and work in one location.
MOU with WWT
On July 13, the IFEZ Authority signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the UK-based Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), a world-renowned wetland conservation organization, at the Songdo G-Tower Business Center to secure international expertise and foster mutual cooperation for the Songdo International Eco-Center Construction Project.
This agreement was inked to create world-class ecological spaces, strengthen biodiversity conservation capabilities, and lay the foundation for international cooperation to realize a sustainable city.
Meanwhile, the IFEZ Authority announced that it received the highest (S) grade in the 2025 Free Economic Zone Performance Evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, becoming the only one among the nine free economic zones nationwide to achieve the highest grade for eight consecutive years.
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