The South Korean island of Jeju sees itself as a potential crypto haven and has requested that the government allows it special crypto zone status.
The island’s governor made the request at a meeting with Kim Dong-yeon, Korea’s finance minister and deputy prime minister for the economy, and other government officials in an attempt to place the island at the forefront of South Korea’s crypto economy.
Jeju Province, officially Jeju Self-Governing Province, is one of the nine provinces of South Korea. According to Wikipedia, the province is situated on and conterminous with the nation’s largest island of Jeju, formerly transliterated as Cheju, Cheju Do, etc., or known as Quelpart to Europeans.
Governor Won Hee-ryong proposes making the island a hub for the development of blockchain and cryptocurrency technology and has requested that the South Korean government form a panel of specialists to plan a strategy to boost its blockchain profile. At a meeting last week, the governor commented:
“For Korea to become a leader rather than a consumer of this new global industry, we need to quickly allow [the operation of] blockchain and cryptocurrency [firms].”
The request comes on the heels of a statement by central government on Monday that it plans to spend USD 4.4 million on eight tech sectors it regards as critical, citing self-driving cars and smart factories, with an emphasis on blockchain, big data, and artificial intelligence. This spending could increase to KRW 10 trillion over the next five years according to Kim Dong-yeon. If these reports are accurate, then the government would need to train 10,000 specialists to service these new projects.
The ministry said, “The measures will help facilitate the platform economy, which in turn will help speed up innovative growth.”
It appears that the request by Jeju may not be an accident coming so quickly after the government statement of extra funds targeting new technology. Governor Won’s desire to create “Jeju Free International City” is very much in keeping with the government’s drive towards regulating blockchain so that becomes fit for purpose, freeing up current restrictions.
Moves towards deregulating ICOs in South Korea is never far from the crypto news in the Asian techno hub, with announcements in June that Korea’s Financial Convergence Association had plans to build its own blockchain hub.
A startup fund is planned for the end of 2018 with Seoul talking the talk, promising that it plans to use “drastic measures to ease regulations that have been blocking new industries and technologies from moving forward”.
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