Korean Free Zone plan seeks Jebel Ali benchmark

An eight-member Korean delegation today completed a 3-day exploratory visit to Dubai during which they held a series of discussions with Jebel Ali Free Zone's top officials and toured the infrastructure facilities.

Jafza CEO, Salma Hareb, who also held private discussions with the Korean team's senior delegates, Soomoon Kim, Senior Advisor to the Mayor of Incehon, and Hwan Kyun Lee, CEO of IFEZA, said, "The Incheon project is very interesting. It fits in with our own strategy to expand across a rapidly-growing market like the Far East. We look forward to a presence there in the near future."

The Korean delegation gave a detailed presentation of IFEZA, a massive US$ 15-Billion project in the northwestern city of Incheon, the Korean port nearest to the capital Seoul. The proposed free zone and port complex will cover some 200 sq Km of land and is expected to be fully completed by 2020.

Mr Lee, IFEZA's CEO, said, "Incheon is strategically positioned to serve the Yellow Sea Economic Basin (YSEB) that comprises a combined a population of 200 million, including the east coast of China. We thank Jafza for showing interest in the Incheon project and we hope our visit would lead to more cooperation in the future."

Chuck Heath, Jafza's Director for International FZ Operations, said, "Our meetings focused on how to carry forward this potential for cooperation to create a mutual win-win platform and to lay a clear roadmap for the future."

Ms Hareb said, "We at Jafza International are prepared to commit a task force to determine the viability of the Korean proposals and the feasibility of cooperation with the Incheon free zone project."

During their meetings the Korean visitors expressed keen interest in how Jafza operates, asking questions on issues right across the board.

"Because of its impressive track record, free zones around the world often use Jebel Ali Free Zone as a benchmark to plan their strategies, especially when it comes to quality and value addition." Mr Heath said.

The Incheon team is the second high-level Korean delegation to visit Jebel Ali Free Zone in the past three weeks. In late August, a delegation representing Busan-Jinhae Economic Zone had held talks on possible cooperation with Jafza officials.

Dubai World, Jafza's parent company, already has a major presence in Korea, where its marine terminal operator, DP World operates the north terminal of Pusan Northern Port.