So say you've finally taken the plunge, and invested a significant amount of money into Korea. As a smart investor is wont to do when investing internationally, you didn't just hand over some money and wave goodbye, you've followed your investment to the country. After all, a hassle-free investor's visa is yours only after committing $50,000 to the Republic of Korea. Then, after arriving at the airport, spending a day or two in a nice hotel, and trying out the local cuisine, suddenly a ton of questions hit you. Where do you live How do you pay rent How do you get a driver's license Can you own land

The reality of living in a foreign country is that your life is never free of questions. And these aren't the easy philosophical questions like "Am I real" or "What is love" No, these are the hard, immediate, life-altering questions like how soon after I arrive in Korea do I have to inform immigration that I'm staying And what exactly are the current options for educating my children

The newly-opened Seoul Global Center, or SGC, headed by Alan Timblick, was created to answer just such non-existential questions. And no one may know those answers better than Alan Timblick himself. He has lived in Korea for over 30 years now, and views it as home. When asked what the major purpose of the Seoul Global Center is, Mr. Timblick said simply: "To make life easier for foreign residents in Seoul... when I say life I also mean business and communication; helping people run their businesses, helping people set up their business."

Those familiar with Korea's other foreigner-centric programs such as KOTRA and Invest Korea might think that the Seoul Global Center is directly set up to attract foreign investment, but Mr. Timblick made it plain that the Center is only interested in the details that are so important to an expatriate living in Seoul. He said that there may be some indirect benefits for investment by making life easier for foreign residents, but that was not its direct goal. It is important to clarify such things because Mr. Timblick's previous position before becoming Head of the SGC was the Head of Invest Korea, which most definitely is interested in foreign investment.

"You know, in a way, the foreign resident is spoiled, because they usually have a foreign friend to complete tasks for them. If they have to do it themselves, they have to go to different offices each time. Here it's all under one roof," Mr. Timblick said. There are representatives from many offices at the Seoul Global Center including the immigration office, driver's license office, tax office, real estate offices and even a lawyer's office. The driver's license office is quite popular, as is the Immigration office. He also mentioned that the Center fields a lot of questions about health insurance from students. "We are thinking of getting somebody from the National Pensions office in here, because there are a lot of questions about pensions," Alan said.

The Seoul Global Center caters to every foreigner who lives in Seoul, but they tend to end up taking care of the needs of smaller businesses more than larger businesses or investors. The larger organizations in the Korean government concerned with FDI tend to take care of the larger companies with which they already have ties. Seoul Global Center, and its parent company, the Seoul Business Agency, find that their domain is occupied by small and medium enterprises by default.

There are several branch offices of the Seoul Global Center in addition to the main center in downtown Seoul. The branch offices are called Global Village Centers, and they are coordinated with the local Gu office. The village centers are equipped to deal with the same issues the main office deals with, and also coordinate free Korean language classes in their local area. There is one in Ichon-dong where there is a large Japanese concentration, one in Yonnamdong near the Chinese school, one in Seorae Village near the French school, one in Yeoksamdong, and one in Hannamdong.

The SGC also has a large migrant workers team. "The foreign population of Seoul has doubled in the last five years. Its really growing fast," said Timblick. "They are people who are coming here because they desperately need a job, and they take the jobs that Koreans don't want to do, the 3D jobs. They regularly remit money home." There is also a growing number of foreign wives of Korean husbands. The migrant workers and international marriage families have a lot of potential problems integrating with their neighbors, integrating their children, and improving their Korean language skills. The Seoul Global Center is prepared to help with these problems.

On Korea's IT industry

Alan Timblick also gave some insight from his perspective as a longtime resident of Korea and active participant in Korea's growth over the past 30 years. He recently wrote an editorial in the Korea Times speaking about what customs Korea has which hamper their globalization, and what keeps them from being fully integrated in the global marketplace. He was asked whether this was true for the IT industry as well, to which he first said that Korea had a very rapid development of technology. He said that the Korean language Hangeul lends itself very easily to computer manipulation, in contrast to Japanese or Chinese. "Within the Korean framework this kind of usage of information technology was very rapid, and we've seen it have a big impact on a lot of things like politics," he said. And then, he tied it together by saying: "What is missing is the integration between Korea and the rest of the world because the Koreans don't necessarily feel comfortable in using the alphabet. And, of course, the rest of the world doesn't know a thing about Hangeul." He felt that the language barrier was the only barrier separating Korea from the rest of the Internet.