ICHEON — Icheon Mayor Sung Soo-seok made a strong case for bringing a horse racing park to the city, saying it would be developed not as a mere entertainment facility but as a complex growth hub combining leisure, tourism, culture and sports.
The city released a statement to that effect on the 6th, marking 100 days since Sung took office.
In the statement, Sung said winning the racing park would revive the city's sluggish local commerce and improve its fiscal self-reliance. He plans to build a mixed-use complex combining hands-on leisure activities and tourism, turning Icheon into a leading resort and leisure city in the greater Seoul area.
Sung cited a stable expansion of local tax revenue as the biggest benefit if the racing park is built. The city expects it could secure tens of billions of won a year from leisure taxes and local income taxes. It plans to reinvest those funds in welfare, education and infrastructure such as roads and transportation.
Once such a virtuous fiscal cycle takes hold, it could lead to better living conditions for residents and stronger regional competitiveness, the city said. The racing park is a strategic project that goes beyond simply attracting a facility and would reshape Icheon's future fiscal structure, according to the statement.
Sung also projected a large economic ripple effect. Construction jobs would be created while the park is being built, and once it is operating, direct and indirect employment would expand into tourism, services, transportation and the distribution of agricultural and livestock products.
Sung expects the project to create several thousand jobs and draw several million visitors a year. More visitors would lift spending at restaurants, lodging businesses, traditional markets and on local farm products, giving a real boost to small business owners and farming households.
Sung pointed to transportation access and locational competitiveness as the strengths that could put Icheon ahead of other local governments in Gyeonggi Province. Icheon is a transport hub in the southern part of the greater Seoul area, where the Jungbu, Yeongdong and Gwangju-Wonju expressways meet.
National routes 3 and 37 also run densely through the area, making it easily accessible from Seoul and the surrounding region as well as from the Chungcheong and Gangwon areas. With the addition of the Jungbu Inland Railway network, the city would have the wide-area transport base needed to handle large numbers of visitors, officials said.
Sung also stressed the case for balanced development in the southern part of the province. The aim is to create a new growth axis in southeastern Gyeonggi, an area relatively left behind amid regulations on the greater Seoul area and regional imbalances, by bringing in large-scale leisure and cultural infrastructure.
The city also cited the availability of land, topographical conditions and environmental suitability as advantages. It plans to move quickly on the bid process, building on support from the city council and civic groups.
"Winning the horse racing park is a major strategic project that will change Icheon's future finances and economic landscape," Sung said. "We will make the case on transportation, location and balanced development, and we will bring it to Icheon."
