Preparing Strategy Ahead of Second Relocation
Lee Cheol-woo: "Boldly Decentralize"
Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk Province, is gearing up for an all-out effort to officially target about 30 public institutions linked to the first phase relocated institutions in Gimcheon Innovation City as a priority attraction strategy ahead of the government's second phase of relocating public institutions from the Seoul metropolitan area to local regions.
The government has announced that regarding the second phase of public institution relocation, “a basic plan including the institutions to be relocated and the relocation principles will be established and announced by June this year, and the relocation of rental institutions within innovation cities will be prioritized, with rental institutions relocated first in the second half of the year.”
Accordingly, Gyeongbuk Province estimated and classified about 220 institutions as candidates for the second phase of public institution relocation in accordance with Article 2 of the Special Act on Balanced National Development and Article 3 of its Enforcement Decree.
Gyeongbuk Province has established its attraction strategy for the second phase of public institution relocation in two main directions aligned with the government’s policy. First, it aims to attract scientific and industrial rental institutions by linking rental office vacancies in innovation cities with industrial infrastructure, and to attract public institutions connected to the functions of the first phase relocated institutions and regional strategic industries.
Furthermore, following the government’s announcement of site selection criteria and the list of institutions to be relocated, Gyeongbuk plans to pursue the attraction of public institutions in parallel by linking regional balanced development with national strategic industries.
Accordingly, Gyeongbuk Province has set a priority target of attracting about 30 institutions linked to the 12 public institutions relocated in the first phase within Gimcheon Innovation City.
Among the 10 innovation cities nationwide, Gimcheon is the only one with a KTX station within the innovation city. Anchor public institutions in the road and transportation sector, such as Korea Expressway Corporation and Korea Transportation Safety Authority, have relocated there, and investments from logistics companies like Coupang and Woojin Industrial Electric have continued, transforming it into a smart logistics hub city.
Therefore, Gyeongbuk Province has designated public institutions expected to be most closely related to regional new industries and to have the greatest ripple effect, while linking them with the first phase relocated institutions by sector, as the target institutions for the second phase of public institution relocation.
By sector, the target institutions in the road and transportation field include about 10 institutions such as the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement and the Korea Railroad Research Institute, linked with smart road construction, integrated new airport projects, designation of railway special zones, and research and development.
In the logistics sector, institutions such as the Korea Post Logistics Support Group and Korea Postal Business Promotion Agency have been selected to expand Gimcheon into a smart comprehensive logistics hub city covering road, rail, and air transport.
In the energy sector, institutions such as the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning and the Korea Nuclear Safety Foundation have been selected to connect with Korea Electric Power Technology in the innovation city, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power and Korea Radioactive Waste Agency in Gyeongju, and the secondary battery and hydrogen energy cluster in Pohang.
Additionally, institutions in the legal and agricultural sectors such as the Government Legal Affairs Corporation and the Agricultural Policy Insurance & Finance Service, as well as other public institutions including the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses and Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology, have been selected as target institutions, with plans to actively pursue their attraction in the future.
Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk Province, emphasized, “To resolve the Seoul metropolitan area’s problems and achieve regional balanced development, large-scale public institutions in the metropolitan area must be boldly relocated to local regions. Through win-win cooperation among industry, academia, and research, we must open a definite local era where industries and companies grow together, enabling people to live well anywhere in the Republic of Korea.”
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