Lee Jae-myung: "We Will Definitely Eradicate Construction Corruption and Malpractice to Recover Development Profits"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party of Korea's presidential candidate and Governor of Gyeonggi Province, promised to eradicate construction corruption and corruption and recover development profits.

On the 20th, during his opening remarks at the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee's audit of Gyeonggi Province held at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Office in Suwon, Lee said, "We are putting all our capabilities and efforts into provincial administration to eliminate inequality, unfairness, and corruption and to establish fairness and justice."

He added, "Regrettably, the Daejang-dong development project, which has not been fully evaluated due to distorted reports by conservative media and baseless suspicions raised by corrupt vested interests, is a model case of returning more than 70% (550 billion KRW) of development profits to the public, which had been monopolized by a specific few," and praised, "We have checked unfair gains in development projects rife with corruption and unearned income, and returned public benefits to citizens, creating a groundbreaking turning point in the history of Korean administration."

Governor Lee also specifically explained the achievements in the construction sector during the 7th local government administration.

He said, "We applied standard market unit prices even to public construction projects under 10 billion KRW and promoted the expansion of construction cost disclosure," adding, "As a result, we expect not only to establish a fair construction environment but also to save more than 29 billion KRW annually."

Furthermore, he stated, "We will transparently accumulate and operate public development profits and create funds to secure practical and concrete financial resources," revealing, "For the first time in 24 years since the establishment of Gyeonggi Housing and Urban Corporation (GH), dividend profits of 57.4 billion KRW will be deposited into the provincial fund."

He also emphasized, "We will accelerate the realization of 'basic housing' that allows even the homeless to have stable housing for life," and stressed, "We will spread Gyeonggi Province's exemplary policies nationwide so that South Korea can be freed from the stigma of being a republic of real estate unearned income."

Governor Lee earnestly requested the audit committee members, "Please listen to the voices of the people who command the strict eradication of ruinous real estate speculation and corrupt construction forces, and gather strength and wisdom to restore fairness and justice in the Republic of Korea."