Hakyoung Kim, Chair of Goyang City Council Construction and Transportation Committee, Leads Shift to 'Compact Economic Free Zone'

Application for Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy designation planned this year; final designation targeted for 2027

Mayor Min Kyungseon: "Priority designation for precision medicine and K-culture industries"

Goyang City in Gyeonggi Province is shifting its special economic zone (SEZ) strategy to a "compact economic free zone," reducing the proposed development area to under 1 million pyeong and focusing on fostering precision medicine and K-culture industries.

Hak Young Kim, Goyang City Council member. Courtesy of Goyang City Council

This move comes in response to calls for policy redesign from Hakyoung Kim, Chair of the Construction and Transportation Committee at the Goyang City Council (Democratic Party of Korea, Songpo, Deogi, Gajwa), who highlighted issues with excessive expansion and poor foreign investment attraction performance.

On August 21, during the 307th temporary session of the Goyang City Council, Chairperson Kim criticized, "Under the 8th popularly-elected administration, Mayor Lee Donghwan neglected the feasibility of designation and instead wasted four years expanding the target area to a maximum of 15.94 million pyeong."

He went on to argue, "The unrealistic plan claiming 20% of the nation’s remaining SEZ capacity and the presentation of dozens of non-binding business agreements as achievements ultimately prevented the project from even clearing the advisory threshold from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy."

Chairperson Kim emphasized, "An SEZ is not a property development project to enhance land value, but a national industrial policy for attracting businesses and creating jobs. The incoming (9th) administration must make a clear choice: either repeat outdated practices or fully redesign the project using a compact strategy to enhance designation potential."

Goyang Mayor Min Kyungseon announced in his response that he would revise the previous strategy focused on area expansion.

Mayor Min stated, "So far, delays in the designation process have been partly due to insufficient incorporation of feedback from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and other central government agencies." He added, "From here on, we will seek priority designation for compact districts with higher designation feasibility, and will consider phased and incremental expansion depending on district revitalization."

Reflecting the results of the fifth preliminary advisory by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Goyang City plans to scale down its existing 2.93 million pyeong development plan to less than 1 million pyeong. The city has selected precision medicine and K-culture as its core strategic industries and will strengthen the feasibility of the funding and land use plans.

Goyang aims to complete the SEZ application process by the end of this year, following a sixth preliminary advisory, with the goal of final designation in 2027.

Chairperson Kim commented, "The intention to shift from slogans and performance-chasing to a verifiable strategy is clear," but also noted, "There are still many issues that need to be resolved and improved."

He added, "We will closely monitor the progress to ensure that the economic free zone enhances Goyang’s self-sufficiency and brings tangible improvements to citizens’ lives, and will present effective and practical alternatives as needed."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.