[Editorial] Impetus for deregulation

After the board members of the Green Climate Fund voted earlier this month to place its secretariat in Songdo, a newly developed international town in Incheon, officials here were quick to trumpet the potentially huge economic benefits of hosting the global body.

Strategy and Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan said its economic impact could be considered the same as a global corporation coming to the country. Researchers estimated that hosting the secretariat of the GCF, a U.N. fund established in 2011 to help fight global warming by funneling money from developed to developing countries, would bring some $343 million in direct economic effects to Korea annually.

Their expectations may not be too exaggerated, considering the GCF will place hundreds of staff at its secretariat and hold about 120 international meetings every year, with a plan to raise $100 billion in funds annually until 2020 to be spent on curbing climate change and promoting green growth.

Korean officials particularly hope that the hosting of the GCF will help boost the country’s service sector. Expressing his wish for its contribution to the development of the local service industry at a forum last week, Finance Minister Bahk cited demand from secretariat workers and their family members for hospitals, schools and other facilities for daily life and leisure activities.

If Songdo is equipped with high-standard service infrastructure, including good medical and educational institutions, it could attract a larger number of tourists and students, creating thousands of new jobs.

But the existing system and conditions seem far from ensuring that Songdo will reap full economic benefits by maximizing its potential as an international town located in the hub of Northeast Asia. Some economic experts even raise concerns over whether it could become a convenient place for GCF secretariat employees and their family members without measures for further deregulation and changes in public attitudes.

From these viewpoints, there may be the need to utilize Songdo as a test bed case for drastic deregulation in the country’s service sector. Beyond attracting foreign-run hospitals and schools here, consideration can be given to changing the current regulations limiting nationals to operating educational and medical institutions for nonprofit purposes only.

With the country’s export-led economic growth stalled amid deepening global downturn, boosting the service industry through deregulation is increasingly needed to buttress the economy and provide new jobs.

Currently, 1,738 foreign nationals live in the free economic zone in Incheon, which includes Songdo. Finance Ministry officials estimate the number will increase by up to 2,000 when the GCF secretariat is set up. In the area, however, there is no major hospital and only one international school. Under this circumstance, foreign residents have to go to a hospital far away from their neighborhood for simple medical treatment and cannot choose a proper school for their children.

A lack of specific rules, complicated requirements and objections from political circles and interest groups have barred Songdo from attracting large for-profit hospitals since it was designated as an international town in 2003. Foreign educational institutions have shown little interest in investing there as the Seoul government’s repeated promises to allow them to remit profits home have not been kept in the face of the parliament’s refusal to change the related law.

It is time to consider taking measures toward drastic and across-the-board deregulation to allow local as well as foreign investors to set up for-profit hospitals or schools in Songdo and other free economic zones. It would also serve to boost domestic spending and create more jobs to divert Koreans who go abroad to receive medical treatment or study to such high-quality medical and educational institutions.

Another important thing for making Songdo and other free economic areas more convenient places for foreign residents is to tear down the language barrier by fostering an English-friendly environment. It is nonsense that notices for apartment residents and restaurant menus are all written in Korean with police and administration officials barely speaking English in a place designated as international town. Incheon Free Economic Zone Administration should push for designating English as an official language with the same status as Korean in Songdo after a short preparatory period.