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Trump-led group may invest $3 bil. in Incheon
SEP.14,2004
A group of investors, including Donald Trump Jr., plan to invest $3 billion to develop Yeongjong Island in Incheon, a Korean legislator has said, part of a government project to create a Northeast Asian logistics hub.
Trump Jr., vice president of development for the Trump Organization, will arrive with other investors on Wednesday, ruling Uri Party Rep. Yum Dong-yun said in a statement. A second delegation, arriving in October, will include representatives from casino and hotel operator MGM Mirage, the statement said.
Trump Jr., the 26-year-old son of real estate billionaire and chairman of Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Donald Trump, and the other investors are considering a casino, hotel and convention center development, the statement said. That would fit with the Korean government¡¯s plan to develop Yeongjong Island, home to Incheon International Airport, into a logistics hub for air and shipping cargo.
The government said last year it plans to invest 202 trillion won ($176 billion) in and around Yeongjong by 2020, with 94 percent, or 195 trillion won, of it through foreign investment. After his election in 2002, President Roh Moo-hyun presented an economic blueprint that aims to turn Seoul into a financial hub and the nearby port of Incheon and two other ports in the south into shipping centers.
Korea is trying to drum up investment from overseas to help reverse slowing economic growth in Asia¡¯s third-largest economy.
Korea¡¯s economic growth more than halved to 3.1 percent last year from 7 percent in 2002. The central bank is forecasting the economy will grow 5 percent this year.
The Incheon Free Economic Zone, which encompasses the airport, initially began as a land reclamation
project. The Incheon International Airport, which was the largest infrastructure project in Korea¡¯s history, was built over eight years and cost the government $5.5 billion at the time of its opening in March 2001.
The government is spending an additional $3.6 billion on the airport in a second round of expansion, scheduled for completion in 2008, which will make Incheon the world¡¯s 10th-biggest airport in terms of passenger capacity.
The Incheon regional government announced plans to set up a city that caters to the air and shipping freight community. The Roh administration expanded the idea into a nationwide project that links Incheon with the ports of Gwangyang on the south-west coast and Busan on the south-east coast, to make Korea a key stop for freight transporters.
¡°The Incheon project is drawing more and more attention overseas,¡± said the Korea Transport Insitute¡¯s Kim Tae-sung. (Bloomberg)
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