Construction of ‘Administration-oriented City’ at Yeongi-Gongju area

The ruling and the opposition parties agreed to build an “administration oriented multi-city” in Yeongi-Gongju area of South Chungcheong Province by moving the administrative branches February 17. However, a difficult coordination process is expected because the parties did not come to a decision about the exact boundary of branches that are subject to move.

The parties such as the Uri party, the Grand National Party (GNP), and the United Liberal Democrats held a special subcommittee for the counter plan of New Administrative Capital (Chairman Park Byung-seok), and announced the above items of agreement. They also decided to close up the different opinions on the recently debated matter regarding the scale of the movement.

The Uri party had argued for the construction of the administrative capital while the GNP had argued for the construction of multi-city with self sufficiency. In the discussion, however, they agreed upon a special law, which states that an “administration-oriented multi-city” will be constructed.

The subcommittee decided to lower the government budget to 8.5 trillion won from 10 trillion and make up for the difference by attracting private capital for SOC investments like railroad construction.

The subcommittee decided to found an “Office of Administrative City Construction” and to appoint the president from the deputy minister level officials. The name of the special law is decided to be “Yeongi-Gongju Area Multi-City Construction Special Law for Counterplans of New Administrative City.”

There will be more controversy around the move of the administrative agencies because the Uri party is arguing that the boundary of the move must be stated in the special law as 16 departments, four agencies and three offices including the Ministry of Finance and Economy while the GNP disagrees.

Young-Hae Choi yhchoi65@donga.com