Mayor travels to Korea to promote Mesa

Oct. 5—Mayor John Giles first traveled to Korea in 1979 as a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints missionary.

Two weeks ago, he returned there to spread the word of Mesa's economic potential and its interest in building closer bonds with the Republic of Korea.

Giles coordinated a three-night trip to partly overlap Gov. Katie Hobbs' eight-day trip to Korea and Taiwan, she opened Arizona trade offices.

The mayor joined Hobbs in the Arizona delegation opening the Korea office but did not travel to Taiwan.

"I invited myself to go on this trip," he said. "I mentioned to the governor's office that we had some strong ties with Korea, that I had strong ties with Korea, that we are in the process of setting up a sister city relationship."

The mayor, who speaks Korean conversationally, said he was stunned by the country's development since his first visit.

"When I was there in the late '70s, Korea was still an emerging economy," he said. "They had their heads down and they were working hard, and now the average Korean is somewhat wealthy and well educated."

"It's hard to overstate how dramatically their economy has taken off over the last 30 years," he added.

Giles says in terms of business and global cultural influence, Korea has become "the envy of Asia."

Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Hyundai Motors and Kia Motors are just a few of the large Korean companies that are household names around the world.

Giles said Korea is particularly strong in industries that local leaders want to cultivate here, including electric cars, semiconductors and batteries.

He thinks the nation could help Mesa achieve its long-term vision of becoming an advanced manufacturing hub.

He added that Korean people have a love for baseball and golf, so there's a cultural affinity with Mesa's spring training scene and the city's many golf offerings.

The mayor extended invitations to Korean executives to come to spring training next year.

"If you turn on Korean television, there's golf lessons on one channel and baseball on the other channel," he laughed.

He added that Mesa is home to a vibrant Korean-American community.

On the business front, Hyundai Transys makes car seats in Mesa for Lucid's electric car factory in Casa Grande, and LG's planned $5 billion battery plant in Queen Creek will have a significant impact on Mesa.

But Giles would like to see Korea invest more in Mesa.

"Korea doesn't know as much about us as they should," Giles said. "In the United States, Mesa and Maricopa County are not particularly well-kept secrets, but we have a lot of work to do in other parts of the world."

Giles was in Korea for three nights. In consideration of the potential sister city relationship and economic development opportunities for Mesa, Giles' travel was funded by the City of Mesa.

A spokeswoman for the mayor's office said the trip is expected to cost about $4,500.

During the first part of his trip, the mayor traveled separately from the governor to visit Uijeongbu (wee-zhong-boo), Mesa's prospective sister city.

Uijeongbu is a 30-minute train ride north from Seoul and has roughly the same population as Mesa.

It's located in a mountain pass where armies from the north might approach Seoul, so it has a history as a home to military bases. It's known for a stew made with packaged food products likely to be found on American military bases, like hotdogs and American cheese.

Giles said that like Mesa, Uijeongbu has military facilities that have closed, so he shared with Korean officials Mesa's experience with turning former military assets like Falcon Field and Williams Air Force Base into economic engines.

Giles said Uijeongbu shifted its reputation "from being a military city to being a cultural city," and the community boasts an outstanding performing arts center and excellent libraries.

Like Mesa, Uijeongbu is trying to be more than a bedroom community.

In the Korea Post last year, its mayor lamented that Uijeongbu is "a city where only typical residential facilities are concentrated" but is also "the best place to attract large IT and high-tech industries such as semiconductors."

Giles said one of his best meetings was with Dong-Yeon Kim, the governor of the province where Uijeongbu is located and a former candidate for president of Korea.

He called Kim, "an amazing, friendly person" who is "anxious to develop a good relationship and pursue a sister state relationship with the state of Arizona."

Giles said he would like to return to Korea with his wife one day as a tourist, but on this trip, "It was one meeting to another the whole time."

But he said there was pleasure in "witnessing the miracle of the Korean economy," as well as a meal that took him back to the old days.

"When I was a missionary, the only time we'd go out to eat was for the very inexpensive Chinese food, the ethnic Chinese food," Giles said. "My favorite meal of the trip was going to a very inexpensive restaurant and having a very inexpensive dish and noodles that brought back a lot of great memories."