▲ Photo by Kim Sueun, Team Oh my news

[This article is written by a JDC Junior Journalist. The JDC Junior Journalist program is an educational project sponsored by Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC). JDC Junior Journalist articles are only briefly edited by mentors before publishing.]

Jeju Free International City Development Center(JDC), is a national institution which assume the responsibility of changing Jeju as a free international city. People in JDC, including the chairman, plan and put things into action. They are concentrating on 6 main projects such as Jeju English educational city, Jeju health care town, Jeju science park, housing complex, Jeju aerospace museum and Jeju myth history park. On May 17th, the chairman Kim Han-Wook had a press conference about the projects he had planned.

He emphasized that “There are already several free international cities, such as Hong-kong or Dubai. However, I am planning to make our city more unique than the others. Therefore, I think we should make some development preserving our natural beauty and traditions.” He added, “To make our city outstanding, there should be something different with the others. As Jeju has beautiful landscapes that the Unesco acknowledge, I think we should concentrate on tourism.”

He also said, “There are three main things that should be considered important, which are capital, products and the people. For products, we cannot build a factory in this island because it will ruin our natural beauties. Consequently, we should focus on capital. It means we need to make our money produced by our people and consumed by our people. However, we when have some financial matters, so we can also get the wholesome money from other countries and go on our way to development.”

He pointed out the reason why he is willing to make Jeju into a free international city. “This island is not ours,” he said, “this island is for our future descendants. In the past the father of your father had worked hard and made Jeju that we live in now. Thanks to them, there have been great changes. Likewise, I think we should make this city a free international city for our future descendants.”

Lastly, he added, “The purpose I made the JDC junior journalist program is the same as the reason why I want to make Jeju a free international city. To make a change, the children who will be citizens of this island should have abilities in various areas.”