Korea approves plan to turn Gangwon's Mangsang into a global resort city

South Korea's industry ministry said Monday it approved a revised development plan for the Mangsang district in the Gangwon Free Economic Zone, part of a push to turn the coastal area into a global resort city with expanded lodging, golf and other leisure facilities.

The plan extends the project period by nine years to 2035 and includes an expansion of the site and changes to its land-use plan. The district will add lodging infrastructure built around its mountains and sea, and investors in tourism and resort facilities will be granted residency status.

The ministry approved the changes at the 149th meeting of the Free Economic Zone Committee, which also signed off on revised plans for Cheongna International City in Incheon and the Galsa Bay shipbuilding industrial complex in the Gwangyang Bay Area Free Economic Zone.

In Incheon's Cheongna International City, the government will extend the project period by four years to 2031 and revise land-use plans to build a one-stop support system covering content production through distribution, along with a cluster combining cultural and tourism attractions built on content intellectual property. The ministry said the changes reflect the spread of Korean content and government policy to foster the sector.

For the Galsa Bay shipbuilding industrial complex, the project period will be extended by two years to 2028. The ministry said the complex had diversified its business model, including renewable energy and energy logistics, and had courted domestic and foreign investors.

The committee also reviewed proposed revisions to the enforcement decree of the Free Economic Zone Act, which would simplify support procedures for companies returning to Korea, strengthen the role of free economic zone authorities as hubs for cooperation between special zones, and allow differential pricing of industrial land within the zones based on production cost.

"We will reorganize development plans to suit the characteristics and conditions of each free economic zone so that they can become a hub for regional growth and foreign investment, and continue to improve the system through revisions to the enforcement decree and other measures," said Je Kyung-hee, head of the ministry's Free Economic Zone Planning Office.