It is a pleasure to extend my wholehearted congratulations to the Korea IT Times on its fifth anniversary. I’d like to express my gratitude to the magazine for its efforts to lead the new era of a global Korea as a technological power.
Jeju is a blessed land and a beautiful island that abounds in ancient mysteries and boasts of a clean natural environment. UNESCO has listed Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes as World Cultural Heritage Sites and other areas on the island as World Natural Heritage Sites. The island of Jeju has also been listed as a “Wetland Conservation Area” under the Ramsar Convention. Jeju has emerged as Northeast Asia’s best resort island, dubbed “Korea’s Hawaii,” “Korea’s Bali,” or “Korea’s Temburong.”
Jeju has set a goal to become an unparalleled international free city in Asia. The Special Self-Governing Province of Jeju is concentrating its energies on developing tourism, recreation programs, medical services, and energy and state-of-the-art industries through its autonomous authority and deregulation policies. The provincial government has also come up with investment inducement plans to “minimize regulations and maximize incentives.” The province has decided to exempt investors with more than US$5 million from corporate, acquisition and registration taxes or cut those taxes for such investors. It has also drastically reduced the period for mandatory administrative processing from more than 22 months to a mere eight months.
Foreign journalists, as well as leaders, who participated in the ASEAN-Korea Commemorative Summit held in Jeju on June 1-2, did not spare their praise of Jeju’s beauty, its infrastructure for convention and event tourism, and its vision for an international free city. This proves that Jeju has a competitive edge in both software and hardware sectors.
Jeju has just begun efforts to meet challenges and effect changes. In other words, the province has set sail for a long voyage ahead. The Smart Grid project designed to achieve the nationwide “Low Carbon, Green Growth” vision was initiated by Jeju, which is establishing itself as a pioneer for energy saving and IT implementation at the household level.
Jeju still has a long way to go. We ask the Korea IT Times for more support for the Province of Jeju in its efforts to meet various challenges. We hope the monthly magazine will present its own views or alternative policies, if at all possible, to the provincial government. We wish the Korea IT Times greater success in the next year.
Kim Tae-hwan, governor of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province
