▲ 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.]

On a beautiful sunny day in May, there was a press conference with the chairman of Jeju Free International City Development Center, Kim Han-wook. He was advertising his company and their projects. He said, “My main goal is to make Jeju citizens healthy. Also, we must work to make some money to maintain Jeju’s natural resources and to keep the environment clean for our descendants.”

There was a question about the meaning of Kims project: the term Free International City. He explained that “A free international city means people, things, and capital can move freely, so it helps their nation’s economy system because that country can be a tourist attraction.” He wants to protect and preserve the nature found on Jeju Island to show our descendants that Jeju had developed but not destroyed its natural beauty.

The chairman mentioned the good things about Jeju becoming a free international city, as well as his future projects. All the students who graduate from from NLCS, one of the schools that has recently joined the Global Education VIllage, have been gone to world’s 40th or more better universities. “If Jeju is a free international city, it will help the country’s economic system and make Jeju and Korea more famous.” He said these kinds of project will make Jeju more international, and also improve life for Jeju’s citizens.

He added, “For students like those involved in the Junior Journalists, we are going to make an English Camp. We will get approximately 2 billion won from the Korean government and we will pick 20 students in this summer vacation and the camp will go on for 3 weeks. We will pick lots of students who are smart, and who have lots of money. But even if they don't have lots of money I will pay for them.” He thinks that it is important for students to have choices of different programs to be involved with, so that have many opportunities to learn or study.

JDC is currently working on many projects, such as the English Village, the Jeju Myths and History Theme Park, and have recently had the grand opening for the Air and Space Museum. The Health Care Town, and other special projects are preparing for our descendant and also for us. They also try to make some new tourist attractions similar to Seoul’s Lotte World. JDC is really concentrating and trying to make Jeju a top free international city.