● Confronted with limited opportunities to attract domestic businesses, an increasing number of cities and provinces in the nation have recently established organizations or institutions aimed at attracting foreign businesses. 

○ The Seoul Metropolitan Government is allocating its resources to attract foreign businesses. Likewise, Gyeongsangnam-do is intensifying its efforts to bring in foreign aerospace companies and develop industrial complexes. Furthermore, Daejeon Metropolitan City has constructed an investment system in collaboration with local financial institutions to facilitate investment opportunities for local businesses.

○  However, aside from attracting businesses, local governments must create streamlined networks to attract both domestic and foreign private capital and cultivate expertise in formulating effective business models that balance publicness and profitability, necessitating a specialized organization at the local level. 

● To achieve sustainable local economic development, investment promotion agencies (IPAs), whose policies have been primarily focused on investment attraction, are transforming themselves into complex business organizations that offer comprehensive services throughout the entire business investment life cycle.

○ It is estimated that approximately 2,000 IPAs have been established and are operating at the regional or city level worldwide. 

● A prospective IPA in Jeonbuk should be adept in facilitating business attraction and foreign direct investment while also spearheading initiatives to secure direct and indirect investments domestically and internationally, as well as attract foreign students and international events.  

○  The proposed IPA can formulate all-encompassing schemes through organic collaboration with Jeonbuk’s opportunity development, cultural, and educational development special zones and seamlessly execute its business attraction strategies by recruiting experts in building and operating relevant domestic and global networks. 

● Paving the way for capital attraction in addition to business attraction will empower Jeonbuk State to provide a catalyst for local economic growth. 

○ The potential benefits of establishing an IPA are as follows: 1) reducing red tape for business attraction, 2) strengthening the connection between business attraction and space development, 3) maximizing the follow-up effects of the World Korean Business Convention, 4) stimulating private sector-driven project finance, 5) securing substantial public infrastructure investment resources, and 6) establishing a financial investment ecosystem. 

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