The Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ), which has been striving to become a hub of Northeast Asia, has shown every sign that it has become a global business location with such international organizations as the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the World Bank Group Korea Office moving into the zone.
GCF is known as a world bank in the area of climate area because it provides support for emerging nations to cope well with climate change. GCF, unlike the Fund for Earth Climate Change, has been a World Bank Group organization set up exclusively to provide support to emerging countries. The World Bank Group is made of five world financial organizations, including IBRD, and GCF is expected to play a key role in the area of providing investment support to emerging nations and cooperative environmental projects.
Currently, 13 international organizations, including the U.N., have set up offices in the IFEZ including the World Bank, A-WEB (Association of World Election Bodies), and UNESCAP, with more international organizations expected to locate their offices in the zone in the near future.
The zone has been able to get so many international organizations to locate their offices there due mainly to the Incheon International Airport, which has been named the best airport in the world in terms of service for nine years in a row. The airport is seen as a travel hub because of its close proximity to 61 cities with a population of more than 1 million. In addition, as it is located near Seoul, the capital area of Korea, it has been easy to find manpower with college degrees. The zone has international schools such as Chadwick International School and Songdo Global College, an environmentally-friendly institute for foreign students.
What attracted the attention of foreign investors has been the zone’s consolidating of its position as the city with smart, green, and compact factors combined, meaning the residents can enjoy doing what they have to do daily within 30 to 40 minutes of home.
Located within 5 km from the center of the zone are such facilities as business offices, schools and universities, hospitals and pharmacies, shopping and convention facilities, and other conveniences needed for the daily lives of residents to make the zone a self-sufficient city. Songdo has already been recognized globally as the city of the future.
It is a so-called smart city called because it can be connected with networks and computers freely from anywhere with its ubiquitous internet environment through the high-tech city management system providing inter-city fusion services such as medical clinics, power, tap water and sewage, transportation, and communication, both wired and wireless.
Songdo was designated in June, 2011 as an “Eco-Friendly City” with a declaration to make it the low-carbon and green city in the IFEZ with around 30 percent of the city covered with greenspace. The city is also known for no garbage pick-up services moving around the town. The city also is equipped with wastewater treatment facilities to turn wastewater into clean water in order to reuse it to clean rest rooms, water landscapes and parks, clean roads, and for drinking. The city is best known for its seawater flowing through the central park, which is hard to find anywhere else in the world.
Commissioner Lee Jong-cheol of the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority, said they plan to make the IFEZ a global business center by attracting high value-added service industries like education, medicine, logistics, tourism, and leisure, among others.
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