The Development of West Coast for the Gateway to China

Korean government launched to establish a comprehensive development plan for the west coast region appearing as a bridgehead of trading with China. For the plan, japans Chinese and Korean civil research centers participate in.

At 21st of July, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation announced “ the ministry will review all development plans established by local government without systematic consideration and maximize the efficient usage of new Western Coast Freeway” and added “ the plan will cover Chungnam, Chunnam and Chunbuk excluding Seoul Metropolitan area.”

The ministry requested the study plan to Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements, west coast local governments’ research centers and Japanese & Chinese civil research centers.

Yun Yang-soo, who is in charge of the plan and a senior research of Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements said, “the basic plan will be completed by the end of this year, and the final plan by July of the next year” and added “the plan will be launched from year 2004 to year 2020.”

▽ The reason for the development= the purpose of the plan is to integrate non-systematical development plans pursued by local governments and control excessive investment, so maximize the maximize the usage of the geographical advantages closest to China.

According to the Ministry of Construction and Transportation, 13 trillion won projects with 37 cases for resort and tourism developments are launched or planned by local government. Additionally the central government has 53 trillion won projects for the development of the west coast. According to the government, it is the time to launch the development plan to use efficiently transportation network facilities that used to be insufficient for long times.

In west coast area, Western Coast Freeway opened in the end of the last year, Chunan-Nonsan Freeway will open in the end of this year. Additionally, Daejun-Dangjin, Kongju-Sechun, Chunju-Hamyang and Anjung-Pyungtaek Freeways will be constructed successively. Therefore the ministry judges that the construction of industrial site and resort areas will maximize the benefits from the transportation networks.

Lee Myung-ro, the Senior Manager of Regional Development of the ministry talked “ the plan will offer the opportunity to develop west coast that has be undeveloped compared to other regions, and keep the balanced development.

▽ What will be the contents= firstly, the plan will evaluate development plans pursued by local governments and make the priorities.

One of the possibilities is to classify as; Baejae Cultural Region, Youngsan River Cultural Region, Taean Costal National Park, Byunsan Peninsula National Park, Dadohae Marine Park, etc. It is a method to combine tourism cities belt to maximize the usage of tourism resources in west coast.

Mr. Yun, the senior researcher, talked “various possibilities will be considered with the reference of the development models the Western countries”

For the resort and industrial development plan, the third party’s assessment will be considered such as Japanese and Chinese research centers. The development plan will include the reasonable operation of Kunjang Industrial Site and Saemankum Industrial Site.

Jae-Seong Hwang jsonhng@donga.com