[Asia Economy Reporters Oh Ju-yeon and Jeon Jin-young] The Democratic Party of Korea and the government continued their second meeting at the National Assembly regarding the Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) innovation plan but failed to reach a conclusion. Heated debates arose over the government's proposed 'LH holding company plan,' preventing consensus. The party and government plan to hold another meeting next week to continue discussions.
On the 2nd, the Democratic Party of Korea discussed the LH innovation plan with ruling party lawmakers from the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) officials, including Minister Noh Hyung-wook. This was the second meeting following last month. Although the meeting extended about two hours beyond the scheduled time, no conclusion was reached due to disagreements between the government and ruling party lawmakers.
After the meeting, Cho Eung-cheon, the Land Committee's floor leader, told reporters, "We agreed on key aspects such as strengthening LH's public nature and transparency, enhancing housing welfare functions, internal control functions, management innovation, and organizational streamlining. However, there was a heated debate over detailed plans like whether to establish a holding company, and no agreement was reached."
Cho explained, "The LH scandal ultimately involved speculation using internal government resources. There was ongoing discussion about whether making LH a holding company would resolve such concerns. There was intense debate over whether this is the right diagnosis and solution for the causes of the LH scandal, but no consensus was reached."
At the party-government consultation on the 27th of last month, differences also remained unresolved for these reasons. The government proposed dividing LH into a parent company, the 'Housing Welfare Corporation,' managing housing welfare, and a subsidiary, the 'Housing and Urban Corporation,' responsible for land development and housing construction. Additionally, functions such as selecting new town candidate sites would be transferred to MOLIT. These detailed plans were reported to the Land Committee but were rejected by ruling party lawmakers. They argued that separating into a holding company and subsidiaries is not the core issue and that the plan would not solve LH's management failures and information monopoly problems.
The same situation occurred in this meeting. Cho said, "(Today as well) the government brought the holding company plan, but since there was not 100% agreement, discussions will continue." He added, "If the government insists on that plan and brings more advanced content, it might be accepted. We need to discuss a bit more."
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