POSCO Group companies are relocating to Incheon's Songdo International Business District one by one. According to the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority on January 25, Daewoo International, Korea's largest trading company, has completed moving to Songdo from a building near Seoul Station and will start a new era in Songdo's Northeast Asia Trade Tower from the 26th. A thousand employees of Daewoo International, a POSCO Group affiliate, will work offices in the 9th-21st floors of the 68-story skyscraper.
In April this year, POSCO A&C, a group-affiliated architectural service firm with 400 employees, will also set up shop in the same Northeast Asia Trade Tower on the 23rd-24th floors. The relocation of POSCO Group companies has begun in May 2010 when POSCO Engineering & Construction moved to Songdo. The POSCO Global R&D Center, POSCO Plantec, and POSCO Engineering have all moved in November 2010, November 2013, and March 2014, respectively. The total number of employees in the six POSCO affiliates that moved to Songdo is 5,200. Including their family members, it is estimated more than 10,000 people moved their homes to Songdo.
POSCO's decision to assemble all its sister companies in the new business district has significantly contributed to the Incheon city government's finances. Last year, POSCO Engineering & Construction paid 7.6 billion won in local taxes alone. Daewoo International and POSCO E&C also paid 14 billion won last year in property acquisition taxes for the Northeast Asia Trade Tower. All told, the group's contribution to the city's coffer is estimated at 25 billion won last year.
Source: The Korea Economic Daily