Government to Build 5 Additional New Towns

Besides of Junaemyun in Yangjugun, Youngsin and Seochon districts in Yongin City, and Unjung district in Paju City, the government decided to add 5 new sites for the new towns by the end of this year, to complete the 9 new small-sized housing development project of total 5.2 million pyong in Kyunggi Province. The government is providing 35,000 small-sized rental apartment units, 10,000 more units that originally planed, to resolve the shortage of the rental housing.

The government is also reviewing a plan to soften the limit system on total investment, in which 30 major companies cannot buy other domestic companies` stocks if the amount exceeds 25 percent of their actual assets.

The government held yesterday a conference of economy vice ministers, presided by vice minister of finance and economy Kim Jin-Pyo, in the Kwachon government building to discuss on such plans, which is to boost the economy.

The government decided to provide housing sites of 6 million pyong every year to resolve the housing shortage. For this reason, the government is adding 5 sites (2.1 million pyung), except Junae (0.48 million pyung), Youngsin (0.68 million pyung), Seochon (0.34 milllion pyung), as new housing sites in Kyunggi Province. The government is also expanding the Unjung district site in Kyohamyun, Paju City from 0.91 million pyong to 1.6 million pyong, an expansion of 0.69 million pyong.

Based on 560 bottleneck cases disclosed from the civil-government joint investigation on the company restriction state, the government decided to soften the restriction by preparing a comprehensive report and a reformation plan by this month.

A government official said, ``Because of the 30 categorized major companies and the total investment limit system, the 30 major companies are experiencing difficulty to invest the new and reconstruction cost of 5 trillion won. And they are expecting to suffer a total loss of 4.5 trillion won when they sell their extra stocks by the end of March next year.``

Accordingly, the government is reviewing a plan to soften the limit, or to extend the settlement deadline for the exceeding investment amount.

Park Joong-Hyun sanjuck@donga.com