제주국제자유도시 발전방향에 관한 연구

Abstract

As part of the strategies to challenge such environmental changes as the huge flow of globalization and paradigm transition toward localization, Jeju Island has forwarded the project of Jeju Free International City since 2002. Although it's been five years since the basic plan was set, there have appeared apparent limitations with the progress due to the poor institutional foundation, government support and self-administration capability. Furthermore, it has weaker competitive edge in terms of taxes, prices, and accessibility compared to other major cities of East Asia. Its comparative advantage doesn't match that of the free economic zones, corporate cities, and special districts of Korea. In particular, the project of Jeju Free International City has close relations with the appointment of 'free economic zones' planned for major cities of Korea in respect to the government's plan to establish the business core of Northeast Asia in the nation. Recognizing that Jeju Free International City couldn't obtain a better ground for competition with the current static perspective, this study focused on the international, local, and domestic changes. It aimed to search for the differentiated and creative strategies of comparative advantage to carry out the project successfully by reconsidering its directions. Chapter 2 reviewed the general contents of globalization and pointed out the problems and limitations with the project based on the progress process of the project, which was chosen for strategic reasons in globalization, and the changes to and the current situation of the conditions of Korean and Jeju since the starting point. Chapter 3 examined the conceptual characteristics of a free economic zone and the cases of free economic zones home and abroad in analytic ways. Chapter 4 compared the free economic zones home and abroad with Jeju Free International City and investigated the implications for the province. It also suggested the tasks designed to carry out the project successfully. Chapter 5 used the results so far to review the developmental directions of the province. The realistic alternatives of the directions were examined by comparing and reviewing the arguments about two models that were the complex and simple type. The results indicated that Jeju's strategies of comparative advantage to survive the competitions with the free economic zones home and abroad included upgrading its clean images based on its clean natural environment, which is the biggest strength of Jeju, reinforcing its industrial competitive edge in connection with the core industries, and developing them into new sources of income. In other words, the realistic alternative is to set the developmental direction towards the "tourism-, recreation-, and business-oriented international free city" that fits the reality of Jeju and differentiates the province from its rivals by integrating the concept of an international free city with complex functions into that of a simple recreation and tourism city.