Busan is good

Busan-Jinhae FEZ sees light despite doubts over new port

Contents

Dispelling the mounting doubts about the benefit of Busan's costly new port, the Busan-Jinhae free economic zone is positive about the prospects of further logistics growth in the country's second-largest city.
"The New Port epitomizes Busan-Jinhae's ambitions to upgrade its logistics facilities in order to attract yet more foreign investors who have a myriad of reasons to seek Korea," says Chang Soo-man, commissioner of the zone authority.

Lending further evidence to such sanguine outlooks, Busan New Port announced on Monday that the Korean branch of Switzerland-based shipping company, MSC S.A. would be docking the port's first ship on Feb. 25. MSC Korea plans to dock twice a week at Busan New Port. Beginning in April, the schedule may be changed to three times a week.

After 10 years of construction, the new port opened in January to face the intensifying competition among Asian nations.

Busan currently ranks as the world's fifth-largest in terms of cargo handling.

The new port is expected to bolster the volume to 450,000-900,000 TEU, or 20-foot equivalent unit, during its first year in operations. By 2011 when the port is completed, the volume should reach 8 million TEU.

Bordering on the East Sea, Busan New Port's best feature is that it connects directly to the Pacific Rim and Eurasia, meaning it has a good chance of becoming East Asian's central port.

Internal problems may be soon resolved as Busan and Jinhae, the two cities the free economic zone was named after, reached a truce last month on their dispute for gaining more authority over the new port.

"We're proud of the achievements we have seen so far and plan to launch new strategies for attracting even more investors who already see much potential in the zone's geographic location and thriving industries," said Chang of the free economic zone.

Over the past two years, the Busan-Jinhae zone has signed $3.8 billion worth of contracts with foreign investors.

"We are focusing on exerting all our efforts into everything and anything that can help reap the benefits that we know are there for us," Chang said in an interview.

Last year, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit hosted by Busan city, the zone signed contracts for $90 million worth of foreign investment.

To help attract investor attention, the zone plans to complete by 2020 the Myeongji New City that will serve as headquarters for major businesses, international schools and hospitals and also residential complexes. For high-tech R&D industries, new areas will be developed to house an Industrial Park.

Adding to the attraction are the ties with the already existing industrial belt in adjoining areas, such as Ulsan, known as the heart of local automobile manufacturers like Hyundai. Back home in Busan is Renault Samsung Motors Co., which recently announced plans to employ 1,000 workers this year.

As for tourism, the scenic city's stunning natural environment and vast consumer market of 8 million has caught the attention of leisure-related investors. The area's strong tourism infrastructure also includes an international airport, the KTX bullet train and ferries and boats going to Japan.

The source of news : The Korea Herald 2006.02.22