Incheon Bridge is drawing attention at home and abroad after it won the premium gold award from the leading Swiss-registered International Project Management Association last year, officials from the bridge operator said.

The Incheon Bridge Company‘s officials said the project was recognized as an example of best practice by IPMA experts, who praised Korea’s technological, financial and managerial competitiveness. 
 

“Incheon Bridge’s long-term approach and sustainability under the vision of local and national development and its establishment of a new private investment framework were innovative enough to win the prize,” the operator quoted an IPMA official as saying.

Incheon Bridge is one of the largest public-private joint venture projects in South Korea, with investment of 2.5 trillion won ($2.17 billion). Opened in October 2009, it has won at least 120 awards in the country and abroad for its planning, technology, finance and business development.

IPMA also expressed its impression on the scale and efficiency of Incheon Bridge’s earthworks. Furthermore, it said the public-private financing and the innovative leadership of CEO Kim Soo-hong were the main driving forces that made Incheon Bridge stand out as a benchmark of other projects.

Not only Incheon Bridge, CEO Kim was also awarded the silver prize for project management by IPMA for 2015. 

Moreover, Kim’s paper, titled “A philosophical approach to project management: project as a phenomenon and in the case of Incheon Bridge,” was introduced to the IPMA World Congress in 2015, which celebrated IPMA’s 50th anniversary and was highly evaluated as a new perspective of creative management strategy, officials said.

Subsequently, in recognition of attracting foreign investment for the construction of Incheon Bridge, which was the first social overhead capital project in the Incheon Free Economic Zone, and saving 270 billion won through systematic reforms, Kim received the Highest Order of Industrial Service Merit, also known as the Gold Tower, last year.

“The accolade should be attributed to the joint efforts of the government and the private sector which was essential to making innovative reforms and create such an advanced business structure,” Kim said during the congress.

After the IPMA World Congress, Kim was invited to present his paper at the Chinese Project Management Symposium and the IPMA Research Conference in South Africa last year.

Aiming at expanding value-creating capability through developing a sustainability-based high-value project, a general assembly to commemorate the founding of IPMA Korea was held in Seoul last April. Along with 33 charter members of IPMA Korea, Reinhard Wagner, the president of IPMA, also attended the general assembly to lecture about modern project management from a global perspective and hold education sessions for project management experts.

Although Korea is currently not an official member of the IPMA, Kim showed a firm conviction during the assembly that IPMA Korea would be approved shortly, as Korea’s competitiveness was recognized through the Incheon Bridge project.

Officials also said global recognition of the Incheon Bridge had led to numerous domestic and international requests to benchmark the project.

Incheon Bridge Company recently inked a memorandum of understanding with Malaysian Penang Bridge authorities for cooperation on bridge management and maintenance. 

Additionally, IPMA Korea signed a memorandum of understanding to build cooperation with a union of eight national Chinese universities, including Shandong University and Tsinghua University, through the establishment of an integrated global organization, the Global Project Institute, studying the Incheon Bridge as an example of ideal public-private investment business.

Incheon Bridge Company has also performed social contribution activities for local development, such as environmental protection and support for alienated neighbors.

By Shin Min-gyu (mingyu2449@heraldcorp.com) and Lee Hong-seok(gilbert@heraldcorp.com)