We, at Gangwon Province, have the vision to make the province a place in which all the residents can live well by achieving sustainable growth. In order to accomplish the provincial government's goal of making Gangwon Province economically advanced with a top quality of life, the province formulated a general plan for the development of the industrial economy on September 25 last year.
The plan has set up measured goals by each field, including the attainment of US$30,000 per capita income of provincial residents by the year 2015. But, the investment inducement field has, for the moment, decided on a medium-term goal of US$5.4 billion until the year 2010 and the long-term goal of US$12.4 billion by the year 2015. Until 2005, the province had received US$2.4 billion in foreign investments. Taking into account the difficulties of the given economic conditions of the world, the abovementioned goals are somewhat of a burden. However, we plan to keep working with big goals.
Until now, Gangwon Province has aggressively sought foreign capital in order to overcome the geographical and environmental limitations and invigorate the regional economy. But unfortunately it did not achieve a lot of results. However, in the future, we will formulate more meticulous investment inducement plans by looking at the many trials and errors in the past as a mirror. And we will convert to the strategy of custom-made investment inducement which finds investment products that fit the investors.
We plan to proactively attract foreign investment by selecting and developing investment products that fit the special characteristics of Gangwon, or in other words, the resources that only Gangwon Province has.
For example, we will concentrate our efforts on the attraction of the biological industry in the Chuncheon area, medical instruments in the Wonju area, the new materials industry in the Gangneung area, in linkage with the three-angled technological strategy. We are thinking of strategically approaching investment attraction with regard to the marine deepwater business, the new and recycled energy business and the development of tourist destinations.
Also, we will speedily form large-scale industrial estates in the regions near the Seoul Metropolitan Area, including Wonju and Hwengseong. We have the plan to build fourteen industrial complexes in Gangwon Province by the year 2010. I have the resolution to bring in companies, including the manufacturing industry, to these complexes. And I am determined to bring in many Korean and foreign enterprises to the Donghae Free Trade Area, which will be formed within the Donghae Bookpyeong Industrial Complex.
In particular, in the case of the Dongha Free Trade Area, the leases of the land of a total of 75,000 pyong will be possible by the end of this year. Because of the benefits, including a diverse incentives system, and the ease of export using the Donghae Port, I believe that it will prove to be a golden investment opportunity for foreign investors.
As for development projects including tourism development, we plan to execute prior feasibility studies and make inducement consultation for investors possible right away. As part of this plan, we had already completed the feasibility studies of the development projects related to the tourism in Sokcho and the Donghae region at the end of last year. I have made the resolution to actively unfold the prepared investment inducement strategies and activities from this year onwards.
In 2006, in our case, foreign direct investment had decreased by 18.3% compared to the previous year. It can be said that, in terms of content, the attraction of more substantial foreign investment has been taking place. The foreign direct investment in Gangwon Province last year amounted to only US$40 million. By type of industry, the distribution industry was 77%, the manufacturing industry 16%, and development projects 6%. In our Gangwon Province, too, foreign direct investment in the manufacturing industry and that of the green field type must be invigorated. But, I regret that they are still very insufficient. Nevertheless, we plan to work on this.
Last year, we did our utmost for inducing investments into the rural villages of Gangwon Province and attracting domestic and foreign investors in development projects, including those of tourist destinations.
And in 2006, Gangwon Province sent many officials to many overseas countries for investment appealing. This has contributed to maintaining exchange relations, including technological cooperation, among companies and to forming a network with potential foreign investment companies.
We had achieved some substantial foreign direct investments last year. In addition, many big and small foreign direct investment projects are underway.
Gangwon Province is becoming an optimal place for investment for both domestic and foreign companies. The year 2006 was a year in which new hopes and possibilities were confirmed.
As for the given business conditions for the foreign capital of Gangwon Province, I would like to classify them, largely, into two types. They are the environmental conditions and the investment conditions. Seen from the environmental perspective, the road and transportation networks had been weak, but in the future this will not be so. The road and railroad networks will be expanded. In the future, people will be able to travel from the Seoul Metropolitan Area to the East Coast of Korea in less than three hours. Such an innovative expansion of the road and transportation networks directly reduces the burden of the logistics costs.
This means that an impediment to investment has been solved. The natural environment is also excellent, being better than the other regions of Korea. The land is large and there are a lot of forests. Gangwon Province is the number one tourist destination in Korea, the natural environment is extraordinary, there are a lot of tourist resorts, and the water and the air are clean. I believe that the investments in the future will be made in this region which has such environmental conditions. In this respect, Gangwon Province is a land of the future that has infinite potentials.
Next are the investment conditions. It is a basic fact that both entrepreneurs and investors invest in places that will bring about profits. And infrastructure through which investors can easily make investments must be prepared. This is why Gangwon Province will establish and intensively foster the infrastructure for the investment inducement industry that fits the special features of the Gangwon region.
We have been building the Wonju medical instrument industrial complex cluster, and we plan to build the Gangwon Techno Park for the knowledge industry by the year 2009. For the aforementioned 3- angled technology strategy, we plan to use 250,000 pyong of land for the exclusive use of the industrial complexes.
Other than these, the development of new and recycled energy, the marine resources field, and the tourism field make Gangwon Province much more comparatively superior than the other regions of Korea.
We actively welcome investments in our region, whether they are foreign capital or domestic capital. Instead of investing in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, which has been a fixed idea until now, if one invests in Gangwon Province, which has no trouble with corporate management as the road and transportation networks are developed and which is the nearest to, and right next to, the Seoul Metropolitan Area, one receives a lot of incentives when founding a business or relocating to the region that cannot be received in the Seoul Metropolitan Area. And Gangwon Province is the best region for investors to freely unfold their dreams for the future within beautiful natural scenery. I am convinced that both the environmental conditions and the investment conditions of Gangwon Province have much more competitiveness than those of the other regions of Korea.
