The Seoul-Inchon railroad built in 1900 by the Japanese government was the first on the Korean peninsular. Inchon's strategic advantages had been previously been paid sporadic attention, though they were fully acknowledged and taken advantage of by the Japanese.
Imperial Japan had already opened her doors to the West and had busied herself absorbing advanced western civilization as well as keeping abreast of important world developments. The Japanese discovered the strategic importance of Inchon as a threshold which connected the Yi Dynasty's capital, Seoul, to the rest of the world. Paradoxically, Inchon, Korea's window on the world, was the route through which the country was to suffer invasion and colonialism. During the DongHak Revolution of 1894, Japan lost no time infiltrating troops by way of Inchon to fill a perceived power vacuum and pre-empt any move by the other major imperial power of the time, China. Japan, with colonial ambitions of its own in Asia considered Inchon a bridgehead against Big China and precipitated the development of the port city by making it the western terminus of Korea's first railroad.
Fast-forward half a century to get another take on history. Inchon was a stage of UN-South Korea combined forces' amphibious assault led by Gen. McArthur aiming for the recapture of Seoul during the Korean war. Driven into a tight corner, South Korea recovered Seoul almost overnight due to the success of the Inchon Landings, comparable in military history with the D-Day landings in Normandy. Taking the initiative and with a momentum borne of sudden success, UN forces under McArthur proceeded to the Aprok river, Korea's northernmost border with China. Inchon's moment of glory still lives on in the Korean popular imagination.
Fast-forward almost another half-century. It is 1997. Now Korea is preparing for the upcoming 21st century against a background of solid economic achievement. Korea is trying to make its industrial base more value-added within the context of a paradigm shift. Various alternatives are being suggested to overcome the endogenous limits of quantitative growth. Switch to the reclamation area which will be Inchon's Songdo New Town. Foreshore is being reclaimed from the sea, inch by inch for three years. Everyday and all day, big dump trucks conveying rock and earth form long lines. The sound of infill being poured into the sea produces a continuous racket. The future? A dream complex without noise, dust, or chimneys. Silicon Valley, watch out; Korea's Media Valley is about to show up.
MediaValley is a multi-media industrial complex which the government conceived as the next century's national strategic project. With a view to nurturing the indigenous information and telecommunications industry, a large-scale high-tech research and development center is being built that aims to play host to the Information Age's knowledge-based society.
Twelve other locations including Paju, Yongin, in Kyonggi Province, and Taejeon, famous for EXPO and its Science & Technology Complex, competed for Media Valley. Inchon Songdo was chosen after selection criteria such as transportation facilities, land prices, plus local contributions to the government and industry-sponsored multimedia promotion fund, were all carefully weighed.
"Above all, surrounding infrastructure such as Inchon's new airport, sea port, western coastal highway, plus our logistical costs, proximity to China and our international business environment were all highly considered," said an Inchon City official. "From now on, Inchon will become a business hub in North-East Asia inferior to neither Hong Kong nor Singapore. It is not peripheral city anymore."
Tough words, but a glance at the blue-prints shows the people at Inchon city hall have been doing their homework. Inchon has a general city development plan, called TRI-PORT which encompasses Media Valley, Songdo, Yongjongdo, (the new airport slated for 2000), and a renovated harbor.
TelePort, Airport, and sea port.
The new airport, which will feature a consolidated airport and seaport
function, is expected to accomodate an increasing air transportation demand
and play the role of an air traffic hub in northeast Asia.
Inchon harbor, which has played a essential role as gateway to the Yellow
Sea, will be reborn as a modernized seaport with the northern part of harbor
developed and expanded facilities.
Furthermore, a large scale waterway between Seoul and Inchon is scheduled
to open by 2021. The Seoul-Inchon Canal will mitigate inland traffic burden
and contribute to the renovation of the local logistical network. The Inchon
terminal, with a capacity of 14.9 million tons and the Seoul terminal, with a
capacity of 9.6 million tons will be able to accomodate massive volumes of
cargo and expedite the development of the inland waterway system.
There are more developments coming down the line in regard to Inchon's
transportation system. The planned Airport Expressway will connect Seoul
and Inchon International Airport, now under construction, within 40 minutes.
The Western Coastal Highway is being built in anticipation of the surge in
traffic expected as a result of the boom in trade between centers on both
sides of the Yellow Sea.
In addition, a high-speed (120km per hour) railroad some 61.5km in length
will link the Inchon airport to the Metropolitan area..
The search for a competitive edge
In 1993, a national "Competitiveness Reinforcement Committee" was
established in public sector, and private counterpart was organized by five
economic organizations in December of the same year.
An information promotion subcommittee was struck in 1994 to formulate a program under which the growth and development of the information and telecommunication industries would be fostered. To this end, a project team was appointed to conduct an analysis of foreign case-studies. In December 1995, the committee published its report, "A National Information Industry Promotion Plan." The committee's report was ambitious. Its major recommendation was the "Media Valley Project," a bid to establish a center of excellence for the development of local information and telecommunication industries. Realizing the necessity of integrating these industries to achieve the kind of development needed to compete in the future, private and public sector bodies on the Competitive Reinforcement Committee took the decision to create the complex. In 1996 September, the "MediaValley Organizing Committee" was struck and Media Valley, Inc. was founded in December. Media Valley, Inc. was formed to select the site for the future Media Valley and handle public relationships. In the same month, the committee selected Inchon Songdo.
On June 9th, 1997, memorandum was signed between the city of Inchon and the Media Valley Organizing Committee. Under the terms of the memorandum, the city is obliged to complete the reclamation of land designated for the site by February 1999, and complete basic facilities by 2002. Inchon is also obliged to raise $112 million contribution to the Multimedia Promotion Fund by year 2007, and to commit itself to attracting the projected National Information & Telecommunication Graduate School and APII (Asia-Pacific Information Infrastructure) center.
The organizing committee is obliged to undertake planning, public relations and complete the process of inviting companies to Media Park by February 1999, and the projected Information & Telecommunication Training Institute by August 1999.
The committee is obliged to oversee the development of the Media Valley Network, a project to establish similar facilities across the country. Funding has been proposed by seven local authorities so far. The committee will have a key role in obtaining commitments from other local governments in this regard. Songdo's Media Valley is, in effect, a test bed for the Media Valley Network. The fortunes of one depend very much on the other.
Media Valley will house five key institutions over its total area of 858 acres: Media Academy, Media Park, Software Park, the Multimedia Information Center and the Support Area.
Media Academy will occupy 162 acres and will have three components: the Media Academy itself, the Media Research Center, and the Education and Research Support Center. Media Academy will provide leading information and telecommunication industries with highly-trained personnel; it will also serve as a highly-educated, high-quality labor pool. It will have 1,000 professors and 12,000 trainees including students, for whom will be offered full scholarships, and and for whom study at the academy may be undertaken in lieu of military service. Specialized institutions both home and abroad in the information and telecommunication field will be invited to establish themselves at the academy.
The Media Research Center will co-develop multimedia technology and share the technology and information in cooperation with the industry, universities, and research institutes. Taking advantage of its proximity to Seoul and Inchon, Media Academy will aim to attract those qualified personnel who aspire to be the driving forces in the high-tech industries of the future.
Investing in training
Chae Kyu-dae, vice president of MediaValley, Inc. emphasizes the importance
of manpower building in this specialized field. According to Mr. Chae, Silicon
Valley is vested with a network of community colleges that can provide the
trained, curious and eager minds which are the driving force of the industry.
It is a matter of urgency, he stressed, to have a rich and growing pool of
qualified labor in order for the industry to continue to gain momentum.
Citing the example of India, he said that the development of a highly-educated, well-qualified labor force has helped India achieve leading-edge status in the field of information technology, notwithstanding its inherent lack of social infrastructure.
The general feeling in the industry is that manpower development represents an investment for the future. If, the reasoning goes, it is agreed that our industrial restructuring should be directed toward the emerging Information Society based on knowledge and information, it follows that the formation of a labor pool to serve the information and telecommunication industries should be a priority.
Software Park, encompassing some 162 acres, will have a three-fold mandate: producing multimedia-related peripherals and software; developing content through research consumer of demand and taste; and providing service to multimedia consumers through the planned super-speed telecommunication network.
Fifty advanced foreign companies will be invited to set up in the park along with 200 local software developers, and a variety of venture businesses, all with the aim of stimulating inter-company high technology transfer. The Business Incubation Center and R&D Support Center, covering eight acres, will serve to strengthen the process of creating and nurturing new firms.
The 283-acre Media Park will have a virtual-reality based amusement theme park, a movie production studio, a digital screen theatre, a museum, exhibition center, a cineplex, a movie-making academy. Landscaped areas will enhance the park's aesthetic appeal.
Media Park will serve not only as an idea factory for creating new multimedia content, but also as an area to test-market products formulated at the Media Academy and Software Park. The Park will house an advanced multimedia motion picture industry comparable in scale to Disney or Universal Studios. In addition to allowing private enterprises to profit through the amusement theme park, Media Park is designed to serve as a center for the multimedia and motion picture businesses, for Korea and Asia as a whole.
The Multimedia Information Center, covering eight acres, will serve as a test bed for the super-speed communication network. The center will operate the network in the Media Valley, act as a link to the world beyond and provide various communication services. It will house the APII headquarters, the National Information Center, the Cooperative Leading Test-network Operation Center, and Communication and Information Support Center. Planners intend by attracting the Korea-initiated APII (Asia Pacific Information Infrastructure), the center will develop as the information and telecommunication hub of the Asia-Pacific region.
The 243-acre Support Area, will accommodate a convention center, financial institutions, legal and tax services, general administration, educational and cultural facilities for the benefit of the MediaValley residents. Inchon city aims to make the Songdo area a one-stop business center. Parks and landscaped green areas will serve to make Media Valley's residential areas pleasant, and environmentally sound. Long term, hope to create a prototype city of the future in MediaValley, where the residences will feature home automation, home-site working, have access to tele-schooling and tele-medicine services, and be served by a one-stop administrative center.
Attracting the foreign company
Aware that some foreigners might find local land prices, usually about 80
percent of preparation costs, somewhat daunting at $135 to $152 per square
meter, the city is prepared to rent some areas for free.
High-tech industries are permitted to move into the Seoul Metropolitan area, of which Inchon is a part, as an exception to the "Metropolitan Area Over-Density Curbing Policy" under a revision to the Metropolitan Design Act. Doing business in Metropolitan area has a lot more to it than meets the eye. It means an access to a market with 45 percent of the entire population, and being at the center of Korea's economic, social and political life.
For high-tech industries, corporate income tax will be fully exempted for five years from the year when the first income is incurred and 50 percent for three years after. Acquisition and property tax on land and buildings will be fully exempted for five years from the initial business day and 50 percent for three years after. And custom duties, special consumption and value-added taxes, and income tax on dividends will be exempted. In addition, special tax treatment will be given to those businesses in the Export Free Zone.
Tolls and tariffs on the use of infrastructure items such as bridges connecting off-shore islands with the mainland, airport highways and seaports, will be deferred, or discounted at favourable rates.
If Media Valley comes to fruition as envisioned, it will attract both the success-minded entrepreneur and the highly-qualified specialist. Planners are hoping for a synergy between the two, the outcome of which will be more info-tech businesses in Media Park.
Songdo Media Valley is being constructed on schedule because there are no difficulties involved such as land purchases.
Songdo reclaimed land is in good condition geologically, has no problems with drainage, and can be offered at a relatively low price. This is the only place in Korea where "chessboard land" is available on so large a scale.
Over the long term, given improved relations with China and the prospect of the eventual reunification of Korea, the outlook for Inchon can truly said to be bright.
Media Valley's strategy for attracting foreign companies
by Jae-Kwan Kim
