(News Analysis) Sejong city plan faces uphill political battle

By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- The government drew a rosy picture of revised plans
for the construction of a new "business and science" hub in the center of the
country, but the plan looks set to cause an open political fray, with internecine
clashes emerging within the ruling party.

Prime Minister Chung Un-chan on Monday announced the government will construct a
top-class self-sufficient city that will lead the country's future and provide a
home to large corporations, universities, research centers and hospitals by 2020.
The plan scrapped the former government's decision to relocate key government
offices out of Seoul to the envisioned city.
In 2005, then President Roh Moo-hyun decided to relocate nine ministries and four
subsidiary agencies into the city some 150 kilometers south of Seoul beginning
2012 as part of his presidential campaign pledge to promote balanced regional
development. But his successor, President Lee Myung-bak, raised the issue up for
public debate in September, saying that the new city under construction would
cause administrative inefficiency. Lee's supporters argued that the city, named
after the inventor of the Korean alphabet, King Sejong, is tantamount to creating
two capital cities in one country.
Officials confidently say the Sejong City, if the revised plan is realized, will
be developed into one of the most enticing cities in the country with large
conglomerates, high-tech research institutes, prestigious universities all
relocating to the site in 10 years. South Korea's leading conglomerates Samsung,
Hanwha, Lotte and Woongjin have already promised to invest a total of 4.38
trillion won (US$3.87 billion) in the development of the city, according to the
government.
With the government's investment, the total investment in the new city will reach
16.5 trillion won. The city is expected to embrace five different functions --
education, science, industry, green city, and international exchange.
When completed, the city will lead other regional cities in terms of income level
and environment and accesibility, government officials said.
This government plan, however, needs revision of current laws at the National
Assembly.
The government plans to exert all efforts to persuade residents of the
Chungcheong region, opposition politicians and Lee's rival faction led by Rep.
Park Geun-hye in the Grand National Party (GNP) to revise the existing Sejong
city law in the coming months.
Political watchers, however, predict that if Park objects to the revised plan, it
may be effectively impossible for the government to push forward changes.
Park, daughter of the former president Park Chung-hee and one of the strongest
candidates to the 2012 presidential election, earlier said in a press conference
that she cannot support any changes to the original plan.
The four-term lawmaker has emphasized that if a regime change will lead to
switching policies, then people will come to distrust politics.
Park is estimated to control 40-50 lawmakers inside the GNP and a splinter
Pro-Park Geun-hye Alliance.
With the opposition Democratic Party and the Liberty Forward Party opposed to the
new changes, it may be hard to pass the bill through the 299-seat National
Assembly to transform Sejong into a science-business hub.
Some ruling party lawmakers and government officials expect opinion from the
regional residents would be decisive factor in the future of the Sejong city. If
public opinion turns positive, pro-Park lawmakers will no longer be able to
oppose the plan regardless of Park's position, they said.
But analyts say that is not going to happen easily. Park did not react to the
government announcement Monday in an apparent show of constant opposition.
"When Park resumes to raise her voice against the plan, it would be difficult to
see a drastic turnaround in the public opinion even if the government works out
an attractive alternative," Yoon Hui-wung, a research fellow at the private Korea
Society Opinion Institute in Seoul, told local media.
sshim@yna.co.kr
(END)

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