Korea`s Major National Projects Adrift

Several of Korea`s key projects are adrift, which is affecting national competitiveness.

This standstill is expected to bring about undesired effects, such as an increase in expenses and loss of projects, a decrease in the nation`s credibility at home and abroad, and a conflict of interests among parties involved.

According to the relevant government agencies and businesses yesterday, the government originally planed to make a final decision by the end of July concerning routes of the Sapaesan Tunnel on the beltway just outside of Seoul as well as the Chunsungsan-Geumjungsan high-speed railway connecting Seoul and Busan. The government, however, has chosen to delay the decision by one to two months.

Nevertheless, the Sapaesan Tunnel Project will face many obstacles to implementation since the government plans to look over surveys for concluding the plan at a time when the route revision commission, comprising members chosen from the project`s contractors and their opponents, hasn`t reached an agreement over the issue.

Another controversy surrounding the Seoul-Busan high-speed railway project came about when the government didn`t select an appropriate route after the route revision commission failed to reach an agreement on this matter. Three candidate routes have been proposed from the commission members so far.

It’s also unclear whether the Gyeongin Canal building project can be pursued as planned because an environmental protection group, which opposed the government initiative, has declined to attend official negotiations since June.

On top of all this, the Saemangeum reclamation project was suspended recently when a Seoul Administrative Court ordered a temporary suspension to the construction. Also, a nuclear waste disposal construction project has come to a standstill as residents of candidate sites in Wido, Buan-gun, Jeolla Province, expressed strong opposition.

As the government puts off important final decisions and national projects are not completed, expenses for the projects have been constantly going up, as have losses from the delays.

The suspended Seoul-Busan railway project is expected to cause 1 trillion won in losses, as contractors were already selected to start work on the project from early this year. There are also rising concerns over the possibility that the delays to build roads around Seoul will result in 100 million dollars in lost foreign investment.

“The biggest problem at this point is the government, which is exposed to different opinions and does not have a strong determination to come to any decisions,” said Wang Se-jong, a researcher at the Construction ＆ Economy Research Institute of Korea. “The pending issues should be finalized as soon as possible with the government proposing a solution and political circles backing this up.”

Jae-Seong Hwang Eun-Woo Lee jsonhng@donga.com libra@donga.com