From the Fairfax Times:
Fairfax County has become home to a significant, flourishing Korean American community over the past several decades.
According to Fairfax County Economic Development Authority president and CEO Gerald Gordon, 60 percent of all Koreans in Virginia reside in Fairfax County, nearly 25 percent of who are located in Annandale and Centreville, as of the 2010 U.S. Census.
The establishment of that local Korean community has brought economic success not only for individual businesses or residents, but also for the county as a whole.
Of the roughly 48,000 minority-owned businesses in Fairfax County, which has the highest percentage of minority-owned businesses in Virginia, 25,000 belong to Asian business owners, and 58 of them are run by Korean or Korean American owners, Gordon says in a column for The Korea Times.
“These businesses make significant contributions and play an important role in Fairfax County’s economic growth and prosperity,” Gordon wrote in the January column.
The growth of Fairfax County’s Korean American community did not happen by accident.
A Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) signed in 2007 and enacted in 2012 eliminated tariffs on nearly all imports and exports between the two countries, resulting in goods and services trades valued at an estimated $144.6 billion in 2016, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
Even before the U.S. and Korea created that trade alliance, however, Fairfax County established its own relations with South Korea when the Economic Development Authority (EDA) opened an office in Seoul in 2005.
The EDA has similar offices in England, Germany, India, and Israel, but the Seoul office tends to be the most successful in terms of convincing overseas companies to locate in Fairfax County.
“Foreign-owned businesses increase the diversity in Fairfax County so that we’re not overly dependent on one particular industry, being the federal government,” Gordon said. “…When you have a company from Korea and they meet people here, then they may engage in not only bringing jobs to Fairfax County, but also bringing imports to Fairfax County and exports to their home countries as well.”
Full article:
http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/sixty-percent-of-all-koreans-in-virginia-reside-in-fairfax/article_97c91aa6-0df5-11e8-9cc3-a3cb8ccc2ad5.html