New Capital is Needed for Revitalization of the Economy

President Roh attended “a forum for the five-year development plan of Daegu and North Kyungsang Province” held at Pohang University of Science and Technology in Pohang, North Kyungsang Province yesterday and repeatedly stressed the necessity of an administrative capital construction by suggesting the revitalization of the economy through an extension of the construction market.

President Roh said, “Even if we put 100 trillion won into capital relocation for 10 years, we can help the construction industry market to grow only at an annual rate of seven to eight percent. The government formally announced the capital relocation cost as 45 trillion won, and we should direct expansion of the construction market towards a way with promising potential, instead of looking at an unpromising way, and direct our thinking to a way towards the development of our country.”

He explained, “The construction industry, which comprises 16 percent of our economy, is declining. We can revitalize the economy and accumulate national wealth when the construction market stays lively.” He added that today is the time when supplementary budget is made for vitalizing the economy, and the economy cannot be maintained without creating business.

In addition, he said, “It is as stressful to think how to maintain the construction market as is economic growth. If we do not construct an administrative capital in Chungchong Province, we should construct it in the suburbs of Seoul. After all, it is a problem of where to construct it.”

In regard to this, Cheong Wa Dae explained, “The president did not mean that the capital relocation site can be changed to the suburbs of Seoul, but that the new capital construction is in the suburbs of Seoul is inevitable if the administrative capital relocation to Chungchong Province is blocked, in order to solve overpopulation in the metropolitan area and to expand the construction market.”

President Roh added that construction of new administrative capital in Yeongi, South Chungchong Province is geographically advantageous for North Kyungsang Province. Construction of a new traffic network can change a rural area to a metropolitan area.

Jung-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com