Key industry clusters in Kangwon
“One province, two governors.” The unique condition of Kangwon (Gangwon) province as described by Gangwon Governor Choi Moon Soon at the recent Jeju Peace Forum.
We recently presented our research and economic roadmap for Kangwon Province at the Jeju Peace Forum on a panel collaboration with the World Economic Forum and Jeju Forum. We believe that despite being a divided province, its unique position and developments point towards future opportunities for regional cooperation.
Visit the microsite at www.kangwonkorea.com
Over the past decade, Kangwon province has been a development priority for the DPRK leadership. Significant resources have been poured into building up the tourism sector through landmark projects such as the Masikryong Ski Resort and the Wonsan-Kalma Tourism Zone. These high-profile projects have been touted as the catalyst for economic development on DPRK's east coast. Several inter-Korea projects, including railway networks have also been planned to tap on the region’s potential.
Despite its development, we observed in our research several factors that hinder its tourism potential. They include the lack of basic infrastructure, including power, transportation and communications, and the disparity in development between inland and coastal regions of Kangwon.
In our roadmap, we identified six areas that need to be developed to fully support Kangwon’s tourism growth, namely infrastructure, tourism facilities, production, retail, talent grooming and tourism promotion. They could be seen as the building blocks of tourism development.
Out of the six areas of development, Choson Exchange has been actively supporting talent development in Kangwon province. Since 2013, we have conducted several training programs in Wonsan and led study visits to help Wonsan policy makers and business leaders to help them leverage the potential of the region’s growth. We are currently planning to restart a multi-year education initiative in the region, which we hope to roll out when borders are open again.
Visit our microsite www.kangwonkorea.com for more information on our economic roadmap and track progress on economic initiatives in the region.
The Kangwon Development Initiative is a project initiated by Calvin Chua and researched by Howard Fu and Alysha Park.
Howard is a Research Lead on the Kangwon Development Initiative at Choson Exchange. He is currently pursuing an MBA degree at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, and has accumulated professional experience in international affairs and development. Prior to Tuck, he was the Assistant Director at Business China, a public diplomacy non-profit. He also previously served as a diplomat in the Singapore Foreign Service, as the deputy to the Consul-General in Hong Kong in 2015-2018, and oversaw political and economic relations between Singapore and North and South Korea and the Northeast Asia region between 2012 and 2015.
So Yun is a Kangwon Region Researcher at Choson Exchange. As a Korean speaker and national, she contributed to the research of Kangwon Province with her past studies in inter-Korea relations and international development. Prior to joining Choson Exchange, So Yun studied Global Affairs and Philosophy at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. She has built her expertise in research and country level analysis from her time at Control Risks and Verisk Maplecroft. She is currently at VISA (APAC) as a business associate.