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Seoul’s Gangdong District Offers the Best of Both Worlds!
With a population of 500,000 people, Gangdong-gu is one of the 25 districts which make up the city of Seoul, South
Korea. Located on the southeast side of the city, Gangdong-gu has rapidly grown into one of the most attractive towns in
Seoul with its comfortable residential areas and optimum commercial infrastructure. Gangdong-gu is also home to a time-honored cultural heritage, the site of the Amsa-dong Prehistoric Relics of primitive humans of the Neolithic era who lived there 6,000 years ago, which has historical significance and huge value as a world heritage. Anchored by the slogan ‘Gangdong, Beloved by its Residents,’ all members of Gangdong-gu office have been striving to transform the city into a better place to live, making citizens the top priority of its administrative policy. Also, sustainability is now the keyword for transforming
Gangdong into a more environmentally friendly and livable city. With the goal of ‘a city of sustainable and happy city’ in mind, Gangdong-gu is engaged in a wide variety of activities designed to create an ecologically, economically and socially
prosperous city, which can be handed down to future generations. Blessed with a clean and natural environment comprising as much as 40% of the gross area, Gangdong-gu has been leading the ‘Urban Gardening’ trend in Seoul, emerging as one of the most eco-friendly districts in the country. In a similar move, it also actively carries out measures necessary for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, one of the hottest issues in the global community. These efforts paid off by Gangdong’s winning numerous pro-environment awards, including 2012 Korea Green Management Awards, Green Growth Fresh City Awards, Korea Eco-friendly Grand Awards and Korea Local Governments Fair. Many of us may agree that taking care of the education and health of residents will be a decisive factor in improving the quality of life in our community. Therefore, Gangdong-gu has been beefing up its efforts in creating one of the bestdeveloped welfare and educational infrastructures in Seoul. Aiming to be one of the best educational centers in the country, we started to run the country’s first-ever self-directed learning center for students of elementary, middle and high schools to encourage them to be motivated to study for themselves, along with a Youth Employment Training Center called “Sangsang Pangpang.” As part of the plan to prepare for the aging society, Gangdong-gu has introduced an advanced healthcare system for the Gangdong-gu residents. Each dong office within our jurisdiction runs a ‘Health 100-year-old Counseling Center,’ which provides an organized and systemic management of residents’ health with the helps from healthcare experts such as a doctor, nurses and a physical training adviser. Through our dedicated efforts, Gangdong-gu won four awards from AFHC (subordinate body of the WHO) Health City International Contest in last October. As a business-friendly city, Gangdong-gu has recently undergone remarkable changes, attracting many of the large companies and young manpower in Seoul. In April of 2011, it succeeded in attracting ENEX, a national engineering complex project into the town. With 90,000 square meters of space, ENEX, which features a Business
Tower, related organizations, R&D centers, social enterprise support center, specialization graduate schools and amenities (convention center, educational facilities and conference rooms) will accommodate nearly 200 companies and 16,000 people.
In addition, a high-tech industrial complex is under construction across from the ENEX building site. Starting with Samsung
Engineering, a total of 10 leading companies in Korea are planning to move into the complex in 2013. The ripple effect and employment inducement effects on the regional economy are expected to be worth as much as 10.9 trillion won and 61,900 people, respectively. Moreover, a new commercial business complex that will feature global enterprises and hotels is going to be built in the Godeok residential area, Bogeumjari (public housing project) in Seoul’s Gangdong-gu. All business travelers will have easy access to the area, as Seoul Subway Line 9 which is currently connected with the Korea Veterans Hospital station is going to be extended to the areas of Sangil-Gangil-Godeok. Like this, Gangdong-gu is a future-oriented district with great potential in pursuit of sustainable development in every sphere of society. In addition to many of the leading companies that are already based in the area or deeply interested in moving their head offices into the city, Gangdong-gu is also a home to a lot of promising small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Korea, many of which find it difficult to promote their products and tap new markets despite the high quality and advanced technology. Therefore, I am glad to describe and recommend these Gangdonggu-based SMEs and their quality products to global buyers in conjunction with Korea’s Buyers Guide.
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