Incheon Free Economic Zone(IFEZ) shows a role model for attracting investment, accounting for 70% of the total FDI of $18.3 billion in 7 Free Economic Zones, with foreign direct investment(FDI) of $12.7 billion as of the end of 2019. The population of IFEZ, which was only 25,000 at the time of 2003 when it was designated as a Free Economic Zone(FEZ), has soared to more than 360,000 as of the end of August 2019, and foreign-invested companies from 3 to 87 and tenant businesses from 673 to 3,275. This study analyzed the challenging process and innovative achievements of IFEZ's outstanding implementation of the strategy for hub of knowledge and innovation in Northeast Asia as a leading foreign investment city among 7 free economic zones in Korea. Through this, the focus was on providing implications for the future development of Incheon as well as other Free Economic Zones(FEZs). To this end, the “SER-M model”, which is useful for comparing competitiveness and analyzing the characteristics of operating mechanisms, was applied. The development subject variable is the mayor of Incheon(Subject: S), the environment for attracting investment(Environment: E) as the environment variable, transportation infrastructure(Resource 1: R2) and education infrastructure (Resource 2: R2) as resource and core competency variables, and operation as a mechanism variable, it was analyzed focusing on the attraction activities of major industries(Mechanism: M). As a result of the research, the success of IFEZ, which was launched in 2003, is the success of the previous mayors and IFEZ Commissioners who have expanded and developed the core competencies of Seaport and Airport into Tri-port and Penta-port policies. It was also found that this was due to the consistent efforts of the subject groups and the mechanism of cooperation with the central government.