By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
Veteran financier David Eldon, the only foreign national on the presidential transition committee, said Friday that South Korea should open its door wider to foreign investors, modeling itself after Dubai, to become an international financial center.
Upon arriving at Incheon International Airport, the chairman of the Dubai International Financial Center Authority (DIFCA) told reporters that the world's 13th largest economy should open its market wide to help create a business-friendly environment for foreign nationals and corporations.
``Dubai has opened its market greatly to foreign companies and successfully attracted talented workers and investors from all over the world, emerging as a regional financial and business hub. Korea should follow in Dubai's footsteps,'' he said, adding the incoming administration will draw up and implement policies that will help open the Korean economy and attract foreign investment.
President-elect Lee Myung-bak has named Eldon as co-chair of the presidential transition team's special committee on national competitiveness, in an unprecedented move to appoint a foreign national to a key committee post.
He is expected to work as an advisor to the former Seoul mayor on ways to attract more foreign investment and sharpen the nation's international competitiveness.
Eldon also said the country should make an all-out effort to build an investor-friendly environment to attract oil dollars from Middle Eastern countries. ``Among emerging economies, oil-rich economies of the Middle East have heavily invested in China. In order for Korea to emerge as an international financial and business center, it needs to win Middle Eastern investors over the world's fastest growing economy by creating a superb business environment,'' he stressed.
The 62 year-old Scot is scheduled to attend the transition team's workshop Saturday. On Sunday, he is scheduled to hold a press conference to explain his plans.
Eldon has served as the DIFCA chairman since last year, where he was in charge of attracting global financial services companies to develop the Middle Eastern city into a regional financial hub. He also worked at banking giant HSBC for 37 years.
One of Lee's key campaign pledges was to boost the country's falling foreign investment through deregulation and more incentives. The incoming administration expects Eldon to utilize his extensive global network and vision to make Korea one of the more attractive places for foreign investors.
Eldon met former Seoul Mayor Lee in 2002, when the international financier served as chairman of the Seoul International Business Advisory Council (SIBAC).
Seoul city's expansion of foreign investor incentives, the construction of Yongsan Foreign School and Sangam Digital Media City were all projects carried out under SIBAC's advice.
The two are known to share similar visions in benchmarking Hong Kong and Dubai to revitalize the country's tourism and leisure industries. Eldon is also said to be a supporter of Lee's controversial cross-country canal project.
Separately, a group of foreign investors from Hong Kong and Shanghai came here Friday to meet President-elect Lee and discuss possible investments here.