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April 18, 2008
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| Trying to quiet protests over the possible scrapping of a plan to build 10 “Inno Cities” in the country to help develop provincial regions, the government said yesterday that the cities will be built, though in modified form. However, the statement fell far short of calming the anger from regions where Inno Cities are scheduled to be built. “Inno Cities are being reviewed so that the cities actually work and there is efficacy,” Minister of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Chung Jong-hwan said in a seminar. “However, the review is not to scrap the idea of building Inno Cities.” The Inno City project calls for moving some 157 out of 346 state-run corporations and research institutes from the Seoul metro area. The previous Roh Moo-hyun administration listed the sites of 10 Inno Cities early in 2005: Busan, Daegu and Ulsan; Gimcheon and Jinju in the Gyeongsang provinces; Jeonju and Naju in the Jeolla provinces; Eumseong/Jincheon in North Chungcheong Province; and Wonju in Gangwon Province. Construction has already begun in six out of 10 Inno Cities. “Logically, there are many problems in regulating development in Seoul metro area,” Chung said. “But the issue is closely related to provincial regions. It is appropriate that we come up with development plans for provincial regions first and then discuss loosening of development restrictions in the Seoul metro area.” The business community has asked for such deregulations in the Seoul area but the regional governments opposed lifting restrictions, fearing that investments would not flow to their constituencies. Chung also discussed the controversy over a new cross-country canal. “The canal project needs to be approached as an issue of managing water resources,” Chung said. “There are concerns over building the canal and we need to ease the concerns before the government advances the canal project.” On real estate issues, he said that “housing prices rose because not enough houses were built in the past. We plan to supply 500,000 new houses annually to stabilize the market.” Local governments where Inno Cities are planned strongly protested the idea of reviewing the projects. More than 20 regional authorities who belong to the Inno Cities Council issued a statement asking the Lee Myung-bak administration to keep to the plans. However, the Lee administration forecast the 43.4 trillion won ($44.3 billion) project would bring only 300 billion won worth of new economic activities annually. “Construction of Inno Cities is the hope of provincial regions, which are relatively less developed, and it was a national project agreed on by both the ruling and opposition parties during the previous administration,” said Park Bo-saeng, Gimcheon mayor and head of the council. “If the new administration changes the previous administration’s policy, who could trust state policy in the future? If the plan changes, the government will meet strong resistance.” By Limb Jae-un, Park Sang-woo Staff Reporter [jbiz91@joongang.co.kr] |
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