New Jeju governor says Chinese projects must be reapproved

Won Hee-ryong, the newly elected governor of South Korea's Jeju Island, recently said all projects with Chinese investors in Jeju Island that have not started construction must be reapproved, Guangzhou-based newspaper China Business News reported Thursday.

Won said Chinese investment in Jeju Island is speculative and he is worried Chinese investors will build a "Chinatown" there, according to the report.

Therefore, Chinese investors' projects that have been approved by the previous local government but have not started construction must go through approval procedures again from the beginning, the report said.

He was quoted by the report as saying that he will make it much harder for foreigners to get Jeju Island's permanent resident visa through property purchase.

The majority of people who do this are said to be Chinese.

A resort project invested by Chinese real estate developer Landing International Development Ltd which was scheduled to start construction on Tuesday has been reportedly postponed due to the new policy.

According to the report, the resort village is the largest foreign investment project that Jeju Island has ever had and the project is now expected to begin in the third quarter of this year after it is reapproved.

An unnamed staff member of Landing's subsidiary in Jeju Island said in the report that the company is in close contact with the local government and is satisfied with the reapproval progress, according to the report.

Jeju Island is only 500 kilometers away from Shanghai and allows visa-free entry for Chinese. In December 2001, South Korea designated the island as an international free city, which opened up the gaming and real estate industries.

Landing's planned resort village was said to also include casinos and Landing has already purchased a local gaming company with HK$880 million ($113.5 million).