Incheon FEZ Lands Hana’s Finance HQ and 2,200 Workers

FTZ News: Incheon held the opening of Hana Financial Group’s Cheongna headquarters on Oct. 2. The city and the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority said a recruitment effort that began in 2012 was finished. Mayor Park Chan-dae, zone commissioner Kim Jong-cheol and Hana chairman Ham Young-joo were there, in Cheongna International City, with group staff and other guests.

The city, the zone authority, Korea Land and Housing Corp. and Hana signed a memorandum in 2012 to build a financial town. The integrated data center opened in 2017. Hana Global Campus, used for training, started in 2019. The headquarters building was finished in May. Staff from the affiliates began moving in September.

About 2,200 people from 10 affiliates are moving over in stages. That includes the holding company, Hana Bank, Hana Securities and Hana Card. Count the people already at the data center and the town is expected to have about 4,000 finance and computing workers.

Hana figures the move will generate about 3.4 trillion won in direct and indirect business over 10 years, and about 15,000 jobs if suppliers are counted. Those numbers are the group’s. The city said it wants the opening to lift Cheongna’s local economy, not just shift an address.

Hana said it will set up a 200 billion won fund for Incheon firms, called a unicorn fund, and with money from managers try to get the pool to 400 billion won. It also plans 150 billion won in guarantees for smaller technology companies. The zone authority said it will go after digital-asset, fintech, blockchain and data firms, and pitch foreign financial companies through Incheon airport and Hana’s offices abroad. It wants to tie the private finance work in Cheongna to international bodies and climate-finance outfits already in the zone.

Park said the 15-year effort had paid off. Hana, he said, kept its word while the finance business and the economy changed. “Hana is now an Incheon company,” he said. He said he would look for ways to grow finance, data and artificial-intelligence work in Cheongna, and to see that small firms and shop owners get a share. He said he hoped the city and the group would make “a new 100 years” together. The notice came from the service-industry attraction division, 032-453-7392. Press calls go to 032-453-7083./.


photo: www.koreaherald.com