Busan Port currently ranks 10th in the world in terms of creating added value. Also the port places 3rd in the world and 1st in Asia in terms of transshipment cargo. The port aims to be in the top five in terms of creating added value and maintain its transshipment cargo capacity.
“We endeavor to make Busan a city specializing in the creative marine economy, as well as the marine and port industries, with the goal of becoming a global marine metropolis in Northeast Asia in preparation for the unification of the Korean Peninsula,” says Kim Kyu-ok, Vice Mayor of Busan Metropolitan City.
Busan is seeking to be designated as the first marine free economic zone (FEZ).
Vice Mayor Kim said, “The metropolitan city government is also striving to create a marine/fishery R&D cluster in the Dongsam District as well as find and foster such creative industries, combined with advanced technologies related with marine plant and bio.
We also plan to lay a foundation for nurturing the creative marine economy that can create more jobs by operating an Arctic operation center with the goal of becoming a center for Arctic shipping routes and developing diverse business models.”
The followings are excerpts of an interview between News World and Busan Vice Mayor Kim in which he spoke of major policies, including restructuring of the conventional regional industries into value-added industries.
Question: Will you tell our readers about Busan’s major industries and your strategies to promote them?
Answer: Busan has an industrial structure with a higher portion in the service sector than other cities.
The service industry takes up a 71.5 percent share, followed by the manufacturing industry with a 19.6 percent portion, the construction industry with a 5.4 percent share, the agriculture/fishing industry with 0.8 percent and others with 2.6 percent. In case of manufacturing industry, general machineries are the highest segment with a 48.3 percent, followed by the textile, automobile, shipbuilding/marine, and aviation industries.
The service industry has relatively weak industrial structure with wholesale retail, transportation, and accommodations/food industries taking up a whopping 65.7 percent share.
As part of our efforts to restructure Busan’s industrial structure with relatively weak, marginalized service industry, Busan Metropolitan City government strives to nurture five strategic industries; the creative culture industry, knowledge based service industry, and marine industry.
Of late, the metropolitan city government has established a plan to foster Busan’s service industry by 2020, calling for the restructuring of conventional industries into value-added ones with the goal of upgrading the service industry and creating quality jobs. To this end, we’ve designed eight promising industrial segments that could have higher added values and promote job creation, including medical care, video content, tourism/MICE, logistics, design, ICT, financing, and business services.
Busan City plans to focus on cultivating marine tourism and IoT convergence in urban infrastructure industries by eliminating unnecessary regulations to induce the development of the regional economy by spreading the creative economy.
We strive to ramp up competitiveness by overhauling the fundamentals of the conventional manufacturing industry and support the exploration of manufacturing industry tasks combined with creative ideas in collaboration with the Center for Creative Economy and Innovation (CCEI), while trying to create new added values and growth engines by nurturing the urban service industry.
Q: Will you introduce your strategies to make Busan a marine metropolis of Northeast Asia?
A: We endeavor to make Busan a city specializing in the creative marine economy, as well as the marine and port industries, with the goal of rising to be a global marine metropolis of Northeast Asia in preparation for the unification of the Korean Peninsula.
Busan is seeking to be designated as the first marine free economic zone (FEZ). The metropolitan city government is also striving to create a marine/fishery R&D cluster in the Dongsam District and find and foster such creative industries combined with advanced technologies in relationship to marine plant and bio. We also plan to lay a foundation for nurturing creative marine economy that can create various jobs by operating an Arctic operation center with a goal of becoming a center of Arctic shipping routes and developing diverse business models.
Busan Port currently ranks 10th in the world in terms of creating added value. Also the port places 3rd in the world and 1st in Asia regarding to handling of transshipment cargo. The port aims to be in the top five in terms of creating added value and maintain its transshipment cargo capacity.
In an effort to compete with rivals for container cargo volumes and create more economical values on the port and hinterland, the metropolitan city government plans to develop New Port into a world-class transshipment cargo center with an integrated port for creating added value, and transform North Port into a beautiful port and foothold for the new marine industry.
We’re seeking to establish a Korean-style marine exchange to develop Busan into a financial center of maritime and shipping industries, which will have synergetic effects among Busan’s mainstay industries, including shipping, port logistics, shipping equipment & components, and maritime financing to create higher added values.
In an effort to advance Busan’s mainstay fishery industry, we’re implementing projects to modernize the dilapidated Busan Cooperative Fish Market and transform the Jagalchi Market into a global fishing attraction. The municipal government will devote itself to actualize its vision of creating a “Sea Food Valley,” a fishery and food industry cluster in Northeast Asia.
The metropolitan city government is seeking to revise municipal ordinances to lay the groundwork for the establishment of a master plan to realize the goal of become a global marine metropolis of Northeast Asia. It will devote itself to realize the goal of joining the global top five marine metropolises.
Q: Will you specify your plan to attract a new international airport?
A: Gadeok, Busan, is considered as an optimal candidate site to meet preconditions that the new international airport project in the southeastern sphere be “safe and operational around the clock.” It would solve the problems such as insufficient facilities, aviation noise and safety with which Gimhae International Airport is now grappling.
Gimhae International Airport has attracted more than 12.38 million passengers, including 5.9 million international flight passengers, establishing itself as the nation’s second largest international airport going after Incheon International Airport, but the airport is suffering from continuing woes like insufficient accommodation capacity, aviation noise and safety issues. Runway saturation is predicted to come two or three years earlier than the 2023 target that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) estimated in a survey in 2014.
MOLIT will announce the final candidate site of the new airport in June based on a survey commissioned to ADPI, a French company specialized in airport architecture and engineering.
A new airport in Gadeok will be a driving force behind the future development of Busan, which aims at become a global metropolis by maximizing exchanges of personnel, technology and culture in all areas, including industry, logistics, tourism/art/MICE, R&D, and employment.
I think that the optimal site of the new airport, a gateway to the pan-East Coast, should be considered to be Busan. I’m sure it will be determined in consideration with a far-sighted national policy and in the best interest of future generations.
Q: Will you elaborate on the current status of foreign direct investments and strategies to attract FDI?
A: We’ve been trying to attract good companies focusing on nurturing Busan’s strategic industries, including the advanced technology industry, IT, tourism infrastructure such as hotel/resort and marina, and knowledge service industries.
Thanks to these efforts, 13 global investment companies have been attracted in the past three years.
The city government, which is striving to create quality jobs by attracting FDI in the valued added service industry, has gained ground this year more than the previous year with scores of MOUs and other contracts expected to be signed by June.
Microsoft has signed a MOU to move into the Internet Data Center for Global Companies, which is now under construction in the Mieum Foreign Investment and International Industry Logistics Complex. The East Busan Tourism Complex has attracted tourism investment from a French company, while negotiations are under way for hotels in the North Port Redevelopment District. The Mieum Foreign Investment zone has attracted foreign high tech and advanced industry investments.
Busan has worked out strategies to help its five districts — Haeundae/Dongbusan Tourism Complex, North Port Redevelopment Dsitrict, Mieum Foreign Investment District, and International Logistics District — attract FDI in the added value service industry according to five regions of the world: Europe (Germany and Switzerland), the Americas, France, China, and Japan.
Q: Will you explain major cultural and tourism events that Busan will host this year?
A: Lots of citizens and tourists participate in diverse and unique cultural and tourism events, which are filled with the localized and global content that Busan can offer. To name a few, there will be the Sea Festival being held around all beaches; the Busan International Comedy Festival in August; the Busan International Film Festival; the Busan Fireworks Festival; the Busan Biennale in October; and the Global Game Exhibition G-Star in November.
In particular, the Busan One-Asia Festival will he held this year in conjunction with the Busan International Film Festival and the Busan Fireworks Festival.
The event, to be held from Oct. 1 to Oct. 23, will be filled with Busan’s own cultural contents and Hallyu (Korean Wave) to attract foreign tourists. It is expected to shift the city’s tourism paradigm to “staying” tourism attraction. The event offers diverse programs, including K-Pop performances of Korea’s top idol stars, and exhibitions on Korean food and offers a peek into Korean stars’ daily lives.
October will be Busan’s cultural festival chapter with the Busan International Film Festival; the Busan Fireworks Festival; and the Busan Biennale. Busan plans to foster its killer contents with a goal of attracting not only Koreans but also about 150,000 foreigners, including many from China.
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