The mind-calming hot aromas of steeped teas start brewing over the mountainous Korean county of Hadong in South Gyeongsang Province on Thursday. More eager than anyone to serve the choicest selection of the southern county to local visitors and tourists from across the world is its governor, Park Wan-soo.
Running until June 3 at special pavilions and natural tea leaf farms across the county, the World Tea Expo 2023 Hadong is now ready to open with local lodgings and restaurants, shuttle buses and having sold more than the goal of 590,000 tickets already. Pre-event promotions across the country went well. Early last month, the county government exhibited at Gwanghwamun Square in downtown Seoul. On show was a periodic reenactment demonstrating the actual practice of a Korean king being served tea from the country’s center of tea culture and tealeaf farming.
“It was Woojeon, a Hadong green tea, one of the best local kinds steeped with naturally grown tea leaves that were hand-picked and selected. There was an opportunity for Seoulites and tourists to taste it during the event, too,” Governor Park told The Korea Times. “Ten companies from nine countries are participating in the expo that’s held in two main pavilions. About 100 programs are scheduled to excite the eyes, noses and ears of the visitors.”
Tea leaves of Woojeon, a type of green tea originating from Hadong which has been long considered the country’s top-quality tea, are harvested around mid-late April every year. Korea Times photo
Situated right above the country’s rugged southern coast that is teeming with islands, South Gyeongsang is part of the country’s new “South Sea tourism belt” jointly pursued by the authorities of Busan and South Jeolla Province.
The three municipalities late last year signed an initiative that will introduce new coastal roads and improve tourism infrastructure. South Gyeongsang alone has invested 1.2 trillion won ($890 million) in this. Ministries of culture-sport-tourism, land-infrastructure-transport and oceans-fisheries are also pushing forward together for the same project ― a final plan for which is set to be unveiled later this year.
Space, national defense
While South Gyeongsang authority’s tourism sector is bustling with the tea expo, the eyes of another sector in the provincial government have been fixed upon wielding regional influence in space. The hub will be the city of Sacheon, where the country’s new Korea Aero Space Administration (KASA) will be set up this year. The legal foundations for the plan were approved by the presidential Cabinet meeting last month. It is now due for discussion and passage at the National Assembly.
“I visited the National Assembly earlier this year to request the special act on launching of KASA be promptly passed,” the governor said. “I will proclaim the South Gyeongsang space economy vision before July.
President Yoon Suk Yeol is shown a KF-21 fighter jet during his visit to Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province in this April 24, 2022 photo. Courtesy of Presidential Office
The province’s KASA project is supported by a robust local economy that feeds on the growing national defense industry. The country’s arms exports reached $17.3 billion (23.1 trillion won) last year and 28 of the related domestic makers designated by the Defense Acquisition Program Administration are in the province. So are other state-run related agencies of the ROK Army, Navy and Air Force, including the Defense Agency for Technology and the Quality and Korea Aerospace Industries.
“Over 1.9 trillion won from the provincial coffer will be invested in the national defense industry in the next five years to boost infrastructure, R&D, private firms and local governance,” the governor said.
Another economic engine in South Gyeongsang is Changwon, where a national industrial complex and the province’s key manufacturing sector have been up and running for the past 49 years.
Thanks to the governor’s repeated nudging of President Yoon Suk Yeol, the city last March became a nest for another national industrial complex linked to national defense and nuclear power. The complex is to be developed over a 3.4 kilometer square site prepared with the discontinuation of a local greenbelt. Its first shoveling is set for 2026.
“With the greenbelt overcome, the province now has its feeding ground for the next half a century,” the governor said.
