November 16, 2009 16:15 PM

Sejong As Science And Economic Hub, Says South Korean PM

SEOUL, Nov 16 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Chung Un-chan said Monday that a state-led project to relocate a dozen ministries and government agencies to Sejong City in South Korea, should be revised with the aim of the building as the science and economic hub, according to Yonhap news agency.

The Sejong City is currently under construction in the central South Korea.

"We are now standing at the crossroads, as Sejong is a colossal project that will determine the national fate. If we're bound by the past and make a wrong choice, it will impose enormous burdens on our descendants," Chung said, reiterating his determination to change the character of Sejong from an administrative city to a science and economic hub.

"The city should grow into an economic hub attracting money and companies, as well as a mecca of science that can change our imagination into reality through a mix of technology, education and culture," Chung said at the first meeting of a government-private joint committee on Sejong City, Yonhap said.

The 16-member joint committee has been launched to draw an alternative plan for Sejong by January through public hearings and other consensus-building procedures.

Initiated by former President Roh Moo-hyun as his election campaign pledge in 2002, the Sejong City project calls for moving nine ministries and four government agencies to Sejong in South Chungcheong Province, about 160km south of Seoul.

There were 18 ministries under Roh's administration, which were merged into 15 by the incumbent Lee Myung-bak government.

The National Assembly passed a special bill on the construction of Sejong City in 2005, with the then opposition Grand National Party (GNP) voting for the bill in a "political gesture" so as not to lose support from the neutral Chungcheong region.

Sejong was derived from the name of a Joseon Dynasty king who invented the Korean alphabet.

Since its inauguration in early 2008, however, the Lee administration has been looking to downsize the relocation project, calling a regional division of the government "inefficient."

Chung has been leading the drive since he took office in late September, arguing the plan, if implemented in its current form, would make Sejong a ghost town without self-sufficiency.

The revisions are being fiercely opposed by residents of Chungcheong Province and all opposition parties. Even a major faction in the GNP, now the ruling party, has accused the Lee government of seeking to nullify the 2005 bill and break a promise with the people.

As Chung has suggested the government's bid to alter the city's status as an economic city, some local companies, including Lotte Group, have said that they are considering moving some of their affiliates to the new town.

It is said that Seoul National University also said it is looking into a plan to open a new campus there.

-- BERNAMA

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