Minseon 8th Term Hwaseong City Passes Midpoint, Surpasses Half of Investment Attraction Target

Achieved 10 Trillion Won in the First Half of the 20 Trillion Won Target
Samsung Electronics, ASML, TEL, Kia, and Others Follow One After Another

Hwaseong City in Gyeonggi Province is receiving love calls from companies based on its abundant available land and infrastructure. There is a growing atmosphere of approaching the goal of "attracting 20 trillion won in investment during the term," pledged by Mayor Jeong Myeong-geun in the 8th local government.

According to Hwaseong City on the 17th, during the first two years of the 8th local government, Hwaseong City has attracted 10 trillion won in investment. At the beginning of his term, Mayor Jeong's pledge to attract 20 trillion won in investment was considered an unrealistic figure, but now, halfway through the 8th local government, half of the goal has already been achieved.

Samsung, ASML, TEL, Kia... Companies Gathering in Hwaseong

A panoramic view of Dongtan New Town in Hwaseong. Based on abundant manpower, available land, and policies, Hwaseong City continues to receive love calls from companies.
[Photo by Hwaseong City]

The top contributors to Hwaseong City's investment attraction are global companies in the advanced technology sector.

Samsung Electronics is investing 1.5 trillion won to establish a "High-Performance Computing Center (HPC)" at the Hwaseong Campus. ASML, the world's largest semiconductor extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment company, is investing 135 billion won to build the "2nd Manufacturing Research Innovation Center."

ASML has also decided to invest an additional 1 trillion won in research support facilities for joint research and development of next-generation semiconductor manufacturing processes with Samsung Electronics. To this end, ASML recently signed a land purchase contract for the center's construction in Dongtan 2 New City. Tokyo Electron (TEL) is also investing 200 billion won to expand its research and development (R&D) center in Hwaseong.

Investment in advanced mobility is also continuing. Kia plans to complete by the end of this year a medium-sized electric vehicle dedicated factory, the world's first of its kind, investing about 1 trillion won to build the foundation for the future car industry. Kia is also developing a special-purpose vehicle cluster near the Hwaseong plant.

Public sector investment is also joining the momentum. Hwaseong City secured 74 billion won in national funds by being selected for the autonomous driving living lab demonstration city national contest project, to be used by 2027. The city also attracted the "Yanggam Hydrogen Hybrid Energy Center," promoted as part of the renewable energy project. The center will produce electricity for about 93,000 households. Through this, the city expects to reduce 230,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, increase tax revenue by 75.6 billion won over 20 years, and create about 600 jobs.

Abundant Available Land + Workforce + Policy Synergy

Jung Myung-geun, Mayor of Hwaseong City, is explaining the vision of Hwaseong City at the investment attraction briefing session held in Seoul for the first time in the city last June.
[Photo by Hwaseong City]

The reason large-scale investments continue in Hwaseong is largely due to its location and abundant available land. The city area is 1.4 times larger than Seoul, and 70% of it is flat land, providing ample capacity to supply land needed by companies. The excellent accessibility through road and rail networks connecting the city east, west, south, and north?including the Metropolitan Area 2nd Ring Expressway, West Coast Expressway, Gyeongbu Expressway, Pyeongtaek-Hwaseong, and Pyeongtaek-Siheung Expressways?is also an attractive factor for companies.

With more than 28,000 large and small companies gathered, the population has exceeded 1 million, and the steady influx of young laborers needed by companies is also a background for investment expansion. In fact, Hwaseong City has the youngest average age in the country at 38.4 years. Early last year, the number of elementary, middle, and high school student transfers surpassed Gangnam-gu in Seoul, ranking first nationwide, making it a dynamic city. Against this backdrop of population growth, Hwaseong City is preparing to launch as the fifth "Special City" nationwide starting next year.

In particular, since taking office, Mayor Jeong has been driving bold policies to achieve the 20 trillion won investment attraction goal. In July last year, the city established the "Investment Attraction Division" and enacted ordinances to expand incentives for investing companies. Recently, a task force (TF) team was also launched to support post-management such as permits and approvals for large-scale investment companies.

The city plans to expand the startup support fund, currently at 68.7 billion won, to 200 billion won by 2026 to discover startup companies and attract excellent companies. Along with this, various support measures will be prepared to improve the environment for existing companies, including ▲improvement of water supply in factory-dense areas ▲improvement of small-scale company environments ▲early road openings. In June, Mayor Jeong also held the city's first large-scale investment attraction briefing session, continuing active sales efforts targeting companies and public institutions.

Mayor Jeong said, "Hwaseong City's remarkable growth has been grounded by large-scale housing developments such as Dongtan New City and more than 28,000 companies in the area. Through attracting promising domestic and international companies such as the Hwaseong International Theme Park and a general hospital, we will achieve the 20 trillion won investment attraction goal early during the term and support the improvement of citizens' quality of life."