Incheon launches committee for bid to host APEC meeting

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Published: 26 Jan. 2023, 19:08 Updated: 26 Jan. 2023, 19:10

Incheon launches committee for bid to host APEC meeting

Gathering of economic leaders is set to take place in 2025

Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok on Dec. 5 addressing a committee created to promote Incheon’s bid to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in 2025. [INCHEON METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]

The city of Incheon has launched a committee with the aim of winning the bid to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in 2025.

On December 5, Incheon announced that it has established a committee and made official its declaration for Incheon to host the 2025 APEC bid in Songdo Convensia.

The committee was created to devise a strategy and organize efforts to attract attention and create hype for 2025 APEC Incheon. It comprises 100 members from various sectors including the National Assembly, city council, international organizations, universities, the press and citizens.

As part of the declaration ceremony, a letter of appointment was awarded to committee members who recited and signed the declaration and made clear the cultural events they hoped for.

“Incheon aligns closely with APEC’s three core values; trade and investment, innovation and digitalization, and strong, balanced, secure, sustainable and inclusive growth, which makes Incheon the best place to host the 32nd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting and we willingly endorse 2025 APEC Incheon accordingly,” the committee announced, while promising to work with Incheon in order to win the bid to host 2025 APEC.

“Including Incheon International Airport and the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Incheon has fifteen international organizations as well as the nation’s largest Free Economic Zone. Also, as Incheon has extensive experience of hosting large international events including the 17th Asian Games (2014) and the 6th OECD World Forum (2018), it would serve as the best location that can properly hold the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting with these experiences,” said Yoo Jeong-bok, mayor of Incheon.

“I deeply appreciate all of the committee members for their positive work and will pull out all the stops to be able to heighten Incheon’s chances to host the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting with the aim of promoting Incheon’s competencies to the world, leading Incheon to become a world-class city,” he added.

A newly-launched committee officially declares its bid for Incheon to host the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Songdo Convensia. [INCHEON METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]

APEC is an annual forum of about 6,000 leaders and senior officials from 21 Asia-Pacific economies, including the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting and Senior Officials’ Meeting. It will be held in Korea in November 2025, twenty years after it was held in Busan in 2005. Currently, Incheon, Busan, Jeju, and Gyeongju in North Gyeongsang Province are competing to host the event.

Incheon’s bid to host APEC can be summarized in three ways. The first is it can realize APEC’s three goals. As Incheon has the largest Free Economic Zone in Korea, the cumulative amount of foreign direct investment accounts for 68 percent of the total amount from all Free Economic Zones in Korea, making the region a business-friendly environment. Incheon is a leading city in the digital economy as well, since it has been producing the world’s No.1 biomedicine as well as promoting urban air mobility and robot industries that link research and development. Incheon also stands out in the field of sustainable growth, as it has the largest number of international organizations in the country with a total of 15.

Incheon offers world-class MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) infrastructure. As it is home to Incheon International Airport which boasts accessibility, it takes no longer than 20 minutes to get to one of the city’s conference halls from the airport. As the first international conference complex in Korea, Incheon has already established excellent international conference infrastructure, with meeting halls, accommodation, shopping and parks are all integrated within a 10-minute walk of each other.

Incheon encourages a geopolitical win-win as the center of the Northeast Asian economic zone in the Asia-Pacific region and contributes as a cooperative city by promoting joint events with Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.

Incheon has been making a notable effort to win the bid to host APEC 2025 since last year. Mayor Yoo met APEC Executive Director Rebecca Fatima Sta Maria to discuss cooperation in September and in December of the same year, a sculpture ceremony was held to promote Incheon as the host city.

Incheon will hold a gathering for embassies from APEC members in the first half of 2023 and a signature campaign for Incheon citizens will be organized. Specialized agencies will also be selected to promote the bid.

The expected ripple effect of Incheon’s bid is enormous, including sparking 1.5316 trillion-won worth of production and creating about 20,571 jobs according to an Incheon research center.

BY PARK YE-EUN [park.yeeun@joongang.co.kr]