(News Focus) Showdown on Sejong City may not be over

By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, June 30 (Yonhap) -- The clock turned back 10 months on Tuesday when the
National Assembly struck down the administration's attempt to reverse a plan on
relocating some government ministries and agencies outside of Seoul.
The conditions for the revived relocation plan, however, are not the same as
before, and a delay is more than likely as the government wrangles with the plan
that critics say utterly lacks incentives to bring people and business to the
city.
The construction of the new administrative city called "Sejong," initiated by
former President Roh Moo-hyun and approved by the parliament, began in 2007 to
house nine ministries and four government agencies. The goal was to decentralize
the capital city, where about a fifth of the country's population of 50 million
resides, and to promote balanced regional development.
The 8.5-trillion-won (US$6.87 billion) project envisioned the new city with a
500,000 population in South Chungcheong Province, about 150 kilometers south of
Seoul, with government offices, universities, research institutes, museums,
cultural and industrial facilities.
Initial anticipation was to have the town naturally boom into a major provincial
city within years, attracting more corporate investors and creating at least
84,000 new jobs.
Construction plans have been suspended since October, when the Lee Myung-bak
government said it wants to abort the plan. The Lee administration argued that
relocating government offices is tantamount to creating a second capital and
would cause administrative inefficiency.
Sejong City would instead be built as a science-business hub, and the government
would spend an additional 26 billion won to create what is called "an
international science-business belt" in the country.
Now that the revision has been dropped, the relocation of government offices is
supposed to begin in 2012, which officials say is virtually impossible.
Construction has been slow, and except for a building for the prime minister's
office, much of the designated area remains empty with only 27 percent of the
construction completed as of the end of May.
"Its physically impossible to carry out the plan at present," an official for the
Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said. "So the relocation can be
delayed."
Questions also remain on how to supplement the original plan to lure corporate
investors.
Soon after Tuesday's parliamentary vote, Samsung Group and three other large
corporations that had pledged to invest a total of 4.5 trillion won in the
project declared the withdrawal of their plans. They said the original relocation
blueprint does not have the right incentives, such as the cheap supply of land to
build factories and rewards for making investments.
The Lee administration had offered the incentives in order to attract corporate
giants, and to successfully turn the Sejong City into a science and technology
hub.
Political watchers say Tuesday's vote has only restarted a second-round battle as
the administration, the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) and Lee's rival
faction within the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) jump in with individual and
conflicting versions on how the problems should be solved.
The opposition bloc had demanded as an alternative that the government give tax
benefits and other motivations for companies to build new facilities in the city
as part of a science-business belt. The government and the ruling party, however,
dismissed the demands.
On Wednesday, the GNP floor leader, Kim Moo-sung, declared that the discussion
was over and that the opposition party should not make further demands now that
the parliament has voted.
Park Hyung-joon, chief presidential secretary for political affairs, said
Tuesday's rejection of the revisions means Sejong City can no longer be an
international science-business town.
sshim@yna.co.kr
(END)

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