Coupang, Korea's largest e-commerce company, said on September 3 that it would establish a logistics center in Gwangju after recently signing a similar agreement with the Gimcheon (North Gyeongsang Province) city government.
Coupang will sign an agreement with the Gwangju city government on September 4 to invest 60 billion won in building a 53,500-square-meter logistics center in the Jingok industrial cluster located in the west of the city.
The logistics center, to be completed by 2017, will hire up to 1,000 employees once completed and plays the role of a distribution center in the southwest. The company has negotiated with the city government since July this year when it received an investment proposal from the government. The agreement was made possible by commitment of the city government including that of Gwangju mayor Yoon Jang-hyun who said, "We will do everything we can to make the investment happen."
Earlier, the company had inked a pact with the Gimcheon city government in August to build a 100-billion-won logistic center. To be established in the Gimcheon No. 1 industrial zone, the center will employ about 2,000 local workers. All told, Coupang will make an investment of 160 billion won and facilitate its innovative one-day "rocket delivery" service across the country.
Henry Low, vice president of Coupang, said, "With the large-scale investment through a deal with the Gwangju city government, we expect to boost the local economy. We will try to invest more in the future to create more jobs and revive the regional economy."