Gyeonggi Province's unrelenting efforts to attract further foreign investment that were launched with Governor Sohn Hak-kyu's inauguration in July 2002 have resulted in investments amounting to US$13.2 billion by 81 foreign-based high-tech businesses. These investments have also created about 60,000 new jobs as of July 2005, said Han Seok-kyoo, assistant governor in charge of the Economy & Investment Office, in an interview with the Korea IT Times. The assistant governor is proud of the fact that Gyeonggi Province's investment attraction performance is the largest among all the provinces in Korea, adding that Gyeonggi province's investment environment is superb plus its human as well as material infrastructure as the province adjoins the Seoul Metropolitan Area. He explained that the province's population of 22 million people forms a huge consumer market of Seoul Metropolitan Area and the national capital region, responsible for over 50% of the domestic consumption market. Han further emphasized that Gyeonggi province became an exemplary benchmarking target for other provinces in relation to investment inducement. In particular, as surrounding circumstances improve with brisk ongoing economic exchanges between North and South Korea, the resumption of the six-party talks, and a number of investment incentive packages, the province has lured an LG Philips TFTLCD factory worth US$10 billion to Paju, Sumitomo Chemical, worth US$500 million, and Delphi laboratory to Yongin, respectively. The assistant governor said that Gyeonggi province is driving forward investment attraction worth US$2 billion this year from 40 multinational corporations with the view of creating employment of 10,000 people, with priority given to the nation's future growth engine industries such as IT, BT, and NT. He went on to explain that investments by foreign-based high-tech businesses have myriad positive effects, such as the enhancement of overall national competitiveness, increase in production, exports and jobs, improvement in the trade balance, and enhancement of technological levels and innovation in the industrial structure by giving a strong stimulus to domestic enterprises Employment creation by attracting foreign cutting-edge companies First of all, regarding the reason why Gyeonggi Province devotes so much efforts to luring foreign high-tech multinational companies, Han said that the province aims to create employment by luring these companies and at the same time to secure national competitiveness by utilizing state-of-the-art technology power such as IT, NT, BT etc. and to prepare the groundwork for developing Korea as a high technology power over the next 10 to 20 years. The assistant governor pointed out that considering the low growth of domestic business, there are certain limitations only with new investment by private enterprises, as well as public sector's finance expenditure to accomplish such a goal. To beef up national competitiveness, he explains that Gyeonggi Province will draw on the necessary resources to realize Gyeonggi Province's development plans by means of inducing foreign high-tech enterprises, adding that Korea's high-tech advantage can be expanded by making the maximum use of the province's favorable investment environment. By 2008, Gyeonggi Province hopes to have reached its target of creating one million jobs, he added. Concerning the Province's negotiation performance for investment attraction with key overseas investors as well as its progress schedule, Han noted that from July 2002 to date, Gyeonggi Province has attracted US$13.2 billion in investment from a total of 81 foreign companies, including 19 companies in the field of auto parts, 33 companies from LCD, 10 companies from R&D field and nine foreign companies from the IT field, etc. As of June 20, 2005, the province attracted FDI worth US$1.2 billion from 29 foreign multinational corporations, only in 2005 alone. As representative investment attraction examples, the assistant governor cited the example of LG Philips' TFT-LCD factory, which completed its first stage construction at the end of June this year, with a scale of US$10 billion, the largest ever since the establishment of the Republic of Korea; Sumitomo Chemical completed its additional investment of US$500 in late January this year; and Delphi Corporation has completed its Yongin laboratory in July last year. In particular, during the period of Gyeonggi Province delegation visit to the United States on June 17-25 this year, the delegation was remarkably successful in attracting US$342 million from seven leading-edge U.S. firms, according to Han. The assistant governor stressed that this was very significant as it means that the attraction of highly advanced industry to Gyeonggi Province was completed by luring a BT company's investment to Korea for the first time, following IT and NT companies. The assistant governor said that Gyeonggi Province would continue to focus on attracting IT, NT industry and BT industries with high growth potential, in that order of priority, explaining that the Province would devote even more efforts to forming and luring R&D centers of global cutting-edge companies on the basis of high-grade manpower as well as infrastructure. As a result of Gyeonggi Province concentrating its efforts on highlyadvanced overseas companies, state-ofthe- art industry clusters of global standard are being formed one after another and its efforts to make people aware that 'Gyeonggi Province is good for doing business,' Gyeonggi is gaining widespread recognition as a favored investment destination, the assistant governor emphasized. Right now, Gyeonggi Province's industry clusters number as many as 65 complexes. With the Paju LCD industry cluster construction as an impetus, associated parts industry investment in the province is rapidly on the increase and the high-tech industry's investment is also increasing, such as auto, IT and bioengineering, he added. Grafting IT sector on the Province's administration. What is striking, is that Gyeonggi Province is significantly grafting the IT sector on the Province's administration. First of all, to survive and to compete successfully in the fiercely competitive digital information society, Gyeonggi Province has focused on bridging the information gap exacerbated by region and by income bracket, by offering a 'home civil service' through a knowledge-based administration system. As a result of these efforts, in 2003 it already succeeded in opening an e-Civil Service Window, so that citizens may access administrative services without visiting their provincial office. Accordingly, all the procedures concerning provincial administrative services can be handled via e-mail or mobile phone. Currently, eight kinds of civil service related documents, including obtaining copies of resident registration and land registration can be applied for through residents' personal computers and printed out with their home PCs. Another important step toward realizing an information society has been taken by creating wired Information Villages and Village Information Rooms. In order to bridge the information gap between urban areas and rural areas and to give residents easy access to information they need, the provincial government has established 24 Information Villages and 750 Village Information Rooms so that all residents in the rural areas may make use of Internet. Looking at the other activities of the provincial government, each year it provides information education for up to 185,000 persons who suffer from a dearth of information on IT, including housewives, people in farming and fishing areas, the handicapped, and the elderly. Han Seok-kyoo, assistant governor in charge of the Economy & Investment Office