Mayor Lee Gang-deok "Apologetic to Citizens," POSCO Holdings Selected for Seongnam Public Offering Project
Government's Regional Balanced Development Policy Contradiction... Concerns Over Accelerated Concentration in the Capital Area
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Pohang City expressed deep concern as it became certain that POSCO's Future Technology Research Institute would establish a large-scale branch in the Seoul metropolitan area.
On the 15th, Seongnam City announced that POSCO Holdings was finally selected as the recommended company for the corporate site of the Wirye District urban support facility for the creation of a 4th Industrial Revolution cluster.
This is in line with POSCO Holdings' plan to establish a large-scale metropolitan branch of the Future Technology Research Institute, which is disappointing news for Pohang, where the main Future Technology Research Institute is located.
Mayor Lee Kang-deok stated, “I am sorry and ashamed that this result came out despite the earnest wishes and efforts of 500,000 Pohang citizens,” and expressed concern that “this decision goes against the regional balanced development policy, which the current government is focusing on to achieve a new era of local governance, and will further accelerate concentration in the metropolitan area.”
Mayor Lee continued, “Regional balanced development can never succeed by government-led efforts alone; it is possible only when all sectors of society actively participate with determination,” emphasizing, “Especially companies, and among them large corporations, should not focus solely on profit realization but should value local regions and strive to realize the greater social value of national growth through regional development.”
Pohang City has conveyed the wishes of its citizens to POSCO through various channels to properly establish the main Future Technology Research Institute in Pohang. During Mayor Lee’s visit to the main institute last October, he expressed a strong willingness by offering a site of 100,000 pyeong, but ultimately, the outcome was disappointing.
According to Article 2 of the agreement signed on February 25 last year, the POSCO Group promised to “establish the main Future Technology Research Institute in Pohang and build an operational system centered on Pohang.”
However, the reality of the main institute is that it is utilizing part of the Pohang Industrial Science Research Institute (RIST) building within POSTECH in Pohang by leasing and remodeling it, and simply relocating RIST’s organization and personnel, resulting in a formal establishment. Despite this, the POSCO Group insists on unilateral fulfillment of the agreement.
In this situation, it has been reported that the project cost for the Future Technology Research Institute branch in Seongnam is 1.9 trillion KRW, which is about 400 times larger than the 4.8 billion KRW invested in the Pohang main institute, stirring public opinion across various sectors of the local community once again.
Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “All social actors with resource allocation authority need to practice genuine local decentralization, and in that regard, leaders of large corporations should show their willingness to relocate their corporate headquarters to appropriate regional areas to revitalize those regions,” adding, “Only through such efforts and determination can we prevent concentration in the metropolitan area and solve the low birthrate problem that could lead to national extinction in the long term.”
Mayor Lee also expressed repeated concern, saying, “POSCO, which should take the lead in regional balanced development, has made a decision that accelerates concentration in the metropolitan area by focusing only on the immediate situation, which disappoints the 500,000 citizens of Pohang and raises worries about the nation’s future,” and stated, “We will continue to urge the substantial expansion and strengthening of functions of the POSCO Future Technology Research Institute main institute in Pohang.”
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