Alibaba Group to build `Alibaba Town` worth of $916 mil. in Incheon

Alibaba Group, a “giant e-commerce company” in Chinese Information and Communication Technology (ICT), is known to carry forward a plan to build “Alibaba Town” of 1 million square meters in Incheon Metropolitan City. The plan requires a whopping 1 trillion won (916 million U.S. dollars) in investment, making it a mega-scale project. Korean ICT industry is paying sharp attention on the ripple effect that would be brought by the giant company whose business includes about 20 areas including online shopping.

According to sources in the ICT industry on Sunday, Alibaba is in discussion with the Incheon City government to make a joint investment of equal share (50 percent each) to establish the Alibaba Town worth of 1 trillion won (916 million U.S. dollars). The company is said to be having a final negotiation on selecting construction site. It appears that Alibaba Town will have hotels, logistics centers, cultural facilities as well as a large-scale shopping mall.

Alibaba is China’s biggest ICT company, accounting for approximately 90 percent of online shopping market in China.

After Songdo, Cheongna and Yeongjong were designated as Free Economic Zones, Incheon has made all-out efforts to attract foreign investment from many countries. On the 100th day of inauguration in October last year, Incheon Mayor Yu Jeong-bok pinpointed “Realization of Incheon’s economic miracle through marketing for Chinese tourists” as one of the city’s 10 key initiatives.

Industry sources say, “Alibaba Town has positive aspects in that it could contribute to attracting more Chinese tourists and lay the foundation for Korean companies to make inroads into Chinese market. On the other hand, there are also concerns that the `ICT giant` could take up large portion of Korean market.”