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November 19, 2009
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| Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said yesterday several leading enterprises are leaning heavily toward relocating to Sejong, a city first intended to be an administrative capital but now is set to accommodate industries and scientific and medical research centers. “Some highly recognized large-sized companies have 90 to 95 percent decided to move into Sejong,” Chung said in a talk to the Opinion Leaders’ Club, a group consisting of leading social figures. “We have contacted companies in and out of the country for quite a long time and there are some that have already signed a memorandum of understanding.” He added that he will try hard to make the deals stick. He also said he won’t use the term, “industry-centered city” when referring to Sejong, for fear some may think the government will provide huge privileges to those deciding to invest in the city in South Chungcheong. There are already “free economic zones” designated by the government - such as in Incheon and Busan - that offer tax breaks and other incentives. Later in the day, the prime minister said in a closed-circuit meeting with 26 members of the Korean Economic Association, a group of economists and academics, that Sejong becoming a city with jobs mostly created by education and science is the most desirable scenario. Chung headed the association for a year in 2006. The participants advised the government to quickly develop revised plans for the new city since its development has sharply divided public opinion. Some of the academics said not all residents of South Chungcheong are against the Lee Myung-bak administration’s plan to revise the administrative capital relocation project, initially laid out by the Roh Moo-hyun administration. By Seo Ji-eun [spring@joongang.co.kr] |
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