IFEZ Journal

IFEZ’s Activities 

Leading Innovative Growth

IFEZ is doing its best to become a future global city by attracting investments from various angles. 

IFEZ’s activities leading innovative growth are as follows.

#01 International forum Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of KFEZ

An international forum was held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Korea Free Economic Zone (KFEZ), discussing future development directions. This event, jointly hosted by IFEZ and the Free Economic Zone Planning Office of the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, was attended by domestic and overseas governments, local governments, related organizations, civic groups, and academic figures. 

At this forum (KFEZ 20th Anniversary – Leaping to Korea’s Innovation Ecosystem City), government/overseas municipal officials and special economic zone experts shared the DNA of future cities. They also discussed development directions based on future technologies, such as global cooperation networks, artificial intelligence (AI), and robots. The keynote speeches were presented by Professor Edward Glaeser of the Department of Economics at Harvard University, an authority on American urban economics and public economics (Future Direction of Free Economic Zones from the Perspective of Urban Growth), and Professor Lee Jeong-dong of the Graduate School of Engineering Practice at Seoul National University 

(The First Question — Conditions of a Technologically Advanced Country). The various sessions included a policy session to learn about special economic zones by country, a cooperation session to discuss cooperation between participating countries and institutions, 

and an industry session to understand the characteristics of each industry. Some exhibition booths promoting KFEZ and nine economic offices nationwide further enriched the event. Through this forum, the FEZ Planning Office and IFEZ have laid the foundation for Korea’s special economic zones to become Northeast Asia’s representative innovation ecosystem cities by increasing the scale of investment and trade.

#02

IFEZ Receives S Grade in FEZ Performance Evaluation for a Fifth Consecutive Year

IFEZ received the highest grade, S, in the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy’s performance evaluation of nine FEZs in the country. By achieving the S Grade for a fifth consecutive year (since 2019), IFEZ has been recognized as Korea’s leading FEZ in attracting investment and innovative growth. This evaluation was conducted by the Performance-Evaluation Committee, which consists of private experts in creative development, foreign investment attraction, urban planning, and financial accounting sectors. The committee reviewed FEZs’ self-evaluation reports and then conducted on-site interviews at each FEZ regarding their achievements and leadership. In particular, IFEZ received good reviews for fostering strategic industries suited to the local environment and characteristics and for creating diverse investment-attraction results.

#03

IFEZ Smart City International Symposium

#04

Incheon Startup Park BoomUp Festival 2023

The BoomUp Festival 2023 was held to provide opportunities for communication, exchange, and investment attraction between startups and support organizations. At this year’s event, held for the third time since the opening of Incheon Startup Park in 2021, IFEZ prepared various programs to lead a quantum jump for startups through verification, investment, and global expansion. Starting with Meet Berlin, which introduced the startup ecosystem in Berlin, Germany, various events for communication were presented, such as Spark IR for Investment Support of Startups’, Spark Showcase for Exhibition of Startups, and Spark Gala for Participants’ Networking.

#05

IFEZ Airs 20th-Anniversary Documentaries

Documentaries produced to commemorate the 20th anniversary of IFEZ’s opening were aired one after another in a special episode of ‘What City Do You Want to Live?’ (KBS DocuOn, October 14) that highlighted IFEZ’s 20-year achievements and the remaining tasks ahead. This program captures the growth process of a global city that created something from nothing by filling in mudflats to build high-rise buildings and attracting many foreign companies. It also introduced an excellent residential environment, showcasing the many parks and green spaces on offer. Meanwhile, the episode of ‘Special Economic Zones, Clusters Are the Answer’ (October 19) looked back on the future direction of IFEZ. Case studies of representative cluster cities worldwide were introduced, and the current status and future of IFEZ’s cluster formation were examined. The airing of these documentaries served as an opportunity to widely publicize the value and potential of IFEZ.

#06

Cheongna G-Tech City Gains Momentum by Signing an MOU

The Cheongna G-Tech City project is gaining momentum, which will create a gaming-specialized complex centered on the e-sports industry in IFEZ Cheongna International City. This project aims to develop educational facilities, research and development (R&D) facilities, and innovation districts and studios for domestic and foreign game companies to foster global gaming talent on approximately 260,395 ㎡ in Block 6 of the Cheongna investment attraction site. In this regard, IFEZ signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cooperation with related organizations (Korea e-Sports Association, Incheon e-Sports Association, and Daewon Plus Development) to create an e-sports gaming-specialized complex and game-industry cluster. This MOU is a follow-up to the MOU signed back in May with DigiPen Institute of Technology, Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH), and Daewon Plus Development, which are leading educational institutions in the world of e-sports. With this, the Cheongna G-Tech City project has become more realistic.

#07

Smart City Living Lab Citizen-Participation Group Launching Ceremony

IFEZ held a launching ceremony for the 2023 Smart City Living Lab Citizen-Participation Group. As part of the IFEZ Smart City Citizen-Participation Living Lab operation project, which will be carried out for five years (from this year to 2027), this event introduced the smart city living lab project and provided primary education on living labs and smart cities. The project is divided into a problem-discovery type living lab that focuses on the lives of citizens and an empirical support-type living lab that applies relevant companies’ innovative technologies and services. The citizen-participation group, composed of 45 people, including office workers and college students living in IFEZ, will explore ideas for solving future smart city problems, derive priority tasks, demonstrate products and services, review improvements, and share the results.

#08

KAI-Songdo ImmunoBio Forum

The 2023 Korean Association of Immunologists (KAI)-Songdo ImmunoBio Forum ended successfully. This event was planned to strengthen the status of Songdo Bio Cluster, which is leaping forward as a global bio hub, by providing a networking venue for bio experts while hosting international academic conferences in the life sciences field. Key speakers included Nobel Prize-nominated researchers, such as Hergen Spits of the Amsterdam University Medical Center in the Netherlands, Alexander Rudensky, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in the United States, and John Wherry of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, the event was filled with various programs ranging from basic research to clinical medicine. In particular, at the KAI-Songdo ImmunoBio Forum, the presentation on the current status of domestic mRNA vaccine development and trends in vaccine-development technology attracted attention.

#09

IFEZ Holds 2023 Youth Bio Academy

IFEZ opened the Bio Academy to increase understanding of biotechnology and foster future bio talents among youth interested in the bio industry. This four-day academy was held in the Songdo Bio Cluster area, including IGC, bio companies and institutions, and universities in Songdo. EDGC Chairman Lee Min-seop, Professor Seok Cha-ok from Seoul National University, and members of the faculty of Ghent University presented lectures for the teens in attendance. The participants also got to tour bio companies and institutions, such as Samsung Biologics, Celltrion, and Startup Park. With experimental practices combined with theoretical lectures, the youths had an opportunity to gain invaluable practical experience.

#10

IFEZ and ICE Sign a Business Agreement to Found an Arts Middle School

IFEZ and the Incheon Metropolitan City Office of Education (ICE) signed a business agreement to establish an arts middle school. According to this agreement, IFEZ plans to provide a site measuring approximately 20,000 ㎡ in Block A5, Songdo Zone 8, to ICE as the site for an arts middle school. This block is an apartment complex, with schemes in place to transform the land-use plan for conversion into a school site. Establishing the arts middle school is expected to prevent the outflow of local artistic talent by securing a step-by-step educational path leading to the arts high school and helping alleviate overcrowded classes in Songdo. In particular, this plan, in conjunction with the construction of the second phase of Arts Center Incheon, which is currently underway, will help build a specialized arts education environment in the future.