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The construction plan is divided into two phases, the first from 2004 to 2008 and the second 2009 to 2020.
The construction of its basic infrastructure has already started, including the International Business Center, state-of-the-art Bio-complex, Knowledge-based Information Industrial Complex, roads, bridges, and water facilities.
Incheon City is making great efforts to make New Songdo City the first ubiquitous city in the world. Shanghai's Pudong Zone has a level of IT infrastructure similar to New York's because it was constructed in the late 1990s when the global IT industry was not yet mature. But New Songdo City is being constructed on the basis of more mature and advanced technologies, so it will be a world leader in the IT field.
The Beijing Olympic summer games will be held in 2008 and the first phase of New Songdo City construction is scheduled to be completed in the same year. If the image of New Songdo City can impress world leaders visiting Beijing in 2008, we could make the most of the Beijing Olympic Games as another strong economic opportunity for us.
For this purpose, I would like to suggest that the following measures be implemented urgently:
First, President Roh and other top leaders of Korea must show a firm vision that they will develop New Songdo City as a symbol of national power. If this huge project is left only to the Incheon local administration, it cannot win the battle against limited time. To actively encourage foreign direct investment it will be important to show the central government's strong intention of investment.
Secondly, the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority must lead its development with the most advanced information technologies. Every basic infrastructural investment toward the ubiquitous environment such as backbone networks, integrated wire and wireless networks, transportation, environment, logistics, medical, distribution, education systems and various state-of-the-art information services must be guided precisely from the beginning of construction.
Thirdly, prestigious local and foreign institutes and authorities should be invited to this New Songdo City and more innovative incentives must be implemented as soon as possible. To this end, it is encouraging that a few special teams of the Korean government have made active efforts in inviting international organizations and R&D centers of big multinational enterprises such as IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Hewlett-Packard.
In worldwide famous IT clusters such as KISTA in Sweden and Oulu in Finland, Nokia and Ericsson are unintentionally inviting a lot of related companies. Following these examples, it is very important to encourage world-famous enterprises to do business in New Songdo City.
Finally, the outlook of Incheon citizens should become more cosmopolitan for New Songdo City to be successful as an advanced international city.
New Songdo City and Incheon Metropolitan City should provide all foreign residents with the most comfortable living and cultural environments, so that world-famous enterprises, institutes, schools and hospitals will want to operate there. It is my firm belief that we can show Korean's potential power to the world again by developing New Songdo City as the most ultramodern city of the 21st century.
Incheon City is making great efforts to make New Songdo City the first ubiquitous city in the world, meaning it will be fully networked. For this purpose, I would like to suggest that the following measures be implemented urgently. Firstly, the national government must strongly support the project to attract foreign investment. Secondly, the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority must lead its development with the most advanced information technologies. Thirdly, local and international organizations and R&D centers should be invited to New Songdo City.
