Korean Air and two SK companies account for nine-tenths of Bucheon's 2.62 trillion won R&D pledge

Added together, the four pledges come to about 2.6286 trillion won ^[10], slightly above the 2.62 trillion won the city gives as its total ^[3]. The difference is about 8.6 billion won ^[11]. Each company's figure is itself reported as an approximation ^[4][5][6].

Most of the money comes from two places. Korean Air's commitment alone is about 11.4 billion won larger than what SK Innovation and SK hynix will spend together ^[16], and the airline and the two SK companies account for about 91% of the pledged total ^[12]. DN Solutions supplies the other 9% or so ^[13]. Spread over the 130,000 square meters of industrial facilities, the city's total works out to roughly 20 million won per square meter ^[3][14].

The occupancy contracts were signed in December last year ^[2]. The spending attached to them is in the future tense: Korean Air will invest, the SK companies will spend, DN Solutions plans to invest ^[4][5][6]. Sedaily's report notes that the complex is still under construction, and it puts the key question as whether the planned investment turns into actual corporate occupancy and job creation ^[7]. The report does not include a hiring target or move-in dates for any of the four.

In the best case the buildings finish and the four tenants fill them with research staff, as the city's plan assumes ^[18]. A worse case is that Korean Air or the SK companies scale back their programs before the buildings are done. The third possibility is that the facilities open on time but are staffed largely by transfers, while local hiring waits on the housing and transport links the report lists as unfinished work ^[9].

None of the four projects is a production line ^[4][5][6]. Bucheon says it wants to go past attracting manufacturing plants and cluster research facilities and related firms, so that young adults find jobs locally and stay instead of leaving for Seoul ^[17].

In my view Daejang today is four committed tenants on a site that is still being built ^[7]. The case against that view is the paperwork. The companies signed occupancy contracts, the city has published an amount for each, and it expects that concentration of large research sites to create a new industrial base in a mostly residential city ^[2][18]. I'd be wrong if the four companies spend close to what they pledged and staff the sites with local hires. "The goal of this administration is to change Bucheon's urban character," Mayor Cho Yong-ik said ^[19].