[INTERVIEW] Incheon mayor banks on port city's openness for creative governance
2023-02-01
來源： 開云體育手機app下載
Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok speaks during a recent interview with The Korea Times. Courtesy of Incheon Metropolitan City
In 2nd mayoral term, Yoo Jeong-bok is determined to develop city further
By Ko Dong-hwan
INCHEON ― Two of Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok's keywords that best represent his vision are "creativity" and "expansion." Situated 27 kilometers away from Seoul on the west coast of Korea, Incheon is home to the country's biggest airport and major ports. Such geographical and infrastructure merits encouraged the mayor to develop the city further.
His goals made headlines even before he was re-elected on June 1. As a candidate from the ruling People Power Party (PPP), Yoo made eye-catching pledges that raised questions regarding their feasibility. Rival candidate Park Nam-choon from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), who was mayor of Incheon at that time and running again, berated Yoo's Jemulpo Renaissance and New Hong Kong City pledges for being unrealistic and said the candidate had yet to establish any plans to carry them out.
But four months into his second mayoral term in Incheon following 2014-18, Yoo has been busy talking to the central government, port authority and local residents as well as reorganizing the city's administration to realize the popular pledges. Jemulpo Renaissance aims to transform Incheon Port (whose old name was Jemulpo Port) into a new harbor metropolis, while the New Hong Kong City project seeks to improve the city's coastal regions to become a new global finance and trading hub and attract global firms exiting Hong Kong.
Jemulpo Renaissance's masterplan is due next year. Yoo said he aims to make visible progress resuscitating the city's industrial sector by the end of his mayoral term in 2026. For New Hong Kong City, the mayor introduced two new city government departments to develop a new financial network joining the islands of Yeongjong, Ganghwa and Songdo as well as Cheongna Global District and Sudokwon Landfill.
Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok and Frankfurt Mayor Peter Feldmann hold an MOU contract they signed at Incheon City Hall on Aug. 4 agreeing to improve bilateral cooperation. Courtesy of Incheon Metropolitan City
Another initiative being pursued by the mayor is to introduce a new government agency to manage 7.5 million people of Korean ethnicity living overseas. Yoo takes pride in Incheon's contribution to the 120-year-old roots of Korean emigrants and the country's only museum dedicated to their history. An association of presidents of ethnic Korean communities around the world who gathered in Incheon in 2021 endorsed the establishment of such an agency.
"With the harbor and airport, it is undeniable that our local infrastructure is incomparable to any other city in Korea, including Seoul," Yoo said in an interview with The Korea Times. "During my previous mayoralty, I won over 34 other cities in a bid to build three new leisure resorts by highlighting the convenient traffic access to Incheon."
Incheon's global ties
Before serving as the country's ministers of food, agriculture, forestry and fisheries (2010-11) and the interior and safety (2013-14), Yoo started his career as the mayor of Incheon's Seogu district in 1995 followed by the mayor of Gimpo County in 1998. The county was upgraded to a city that year. Between 2004 and 2014, he was also a lawmaker. Having served various titles for well over two decades, he learned that for a city to thrive, it must look overseas to form ties.
That's how Incheon, under his watch, grew close to Frankfurt in Germany and China's Weihai City. Frankfurt Mayor Peter Feldmann visited Incheon last August and signed an MOU for stronger diplomatic ties. Yoo and Feldmann also met in 2014 when the Incheon mayor visited the German city to attend a book fair.
Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok meets APEC Executive Director Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria at APEC's headquarters in Singapore on Sept. 16 to promote Incheon as the host city for the organization's 32nd Summit in 2025. Courtesy of Incheon Metropolitan City
"We agreed that Incheon should learn from Frankfurt Germany's advanced financial operating system," said Yoo. "The lesson will also help our New Hong Kong City Project as well as spur our bilateral cooperation in MICE and other industries."
Two years after Yoo's Frankfurt visit, Korea and China signed a Free Trade Agreement in 2016 ― designating Incheon and Weihai to test the new bond. The two cities cooperated in 41 projects encompassing trade, customs, tourism and sports. Last August, Incheon's economic trade chapter in Weihai took part in the Chinese city's fair for imported goods in Shandong Province and bridged companies in both cities with mutual interests.
Yoo designated Songdo, Yeongjong Islands and Cheongna in western Incheon as key hubs. Last August, German chemical and consumer goods maker Henkel started running its factory in Songdo's special industrial cluster. The mayor expects a growing number of global semiconductor packaging companies in the island's free economic zone will form a partnership with the German firm. Various potentially strong industries, including bio, healthcare, hydrogen, tourism and logistics, will be developed in those hubs under the mayor's plan.
Yoo also plans to have Incheon host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation's 32nd Summit in 2025. With the race to host the event narrowing to Busan, Jeju, Gyeongju and Incheon, the mayor said his city has hosted various international events like the Incheon Asiad (2014), Education World Forum (2015) and OECD Global Forum (2018) but never an international summit before.
"We have 15 international organizations and five foreign universities in Incheon, and we still have abundant stretches of unused land," said Yoo. "One of the critical errors committed by the current local governments is that they all support 'balanced improvement' across different cities and regions. What they actually need is a differentiated strategy customized to each of their regions. As long as they all get an equal share and copy what others did, they will all fail. That's why the international swimming championship in Gwangju (in 2019) and F1 motorsport circuit in Yeongam went bust."
