Formalized as a Pledge for Jeonbuk by the Yeo Party... Chairman Han Dong-hoon Also Promises
Agency: "Unrealistic Pledge, Recycled for General Election"
National Pension Service Fund Management Headquarters Also Advocates 'Relocation Back to Seoul'
"Was there such a pledge? I had no idea. I’m not very interested in politics, but if there had been any inquiries, I would have known. There were none. It’s absurd."
On the 8th, when asked about the People Power Party's pledge to relocate the mutual aid associations to Jeonbuk, a mutual aid association official responded this way. He said it was the first time he had heard of it and instead asked what the details were. Another mutual aid association official raised his voice, saying, "We are not government-owned public institutions but organizations of our members. Isn’t this going too far just to get votes?" He added, "We were originally undecided voters, but we got so angry that we decided to definitely vote."
Officialized as a ruling party pledge... Han also directly mentioned it
The People Power Party promised as a pledge for the 22nd general election in the Jeonbuk region to relocate the Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) and the seven major mutual aid associations to Jeonbuk. The seven major mutual aid associations refer to the Police Mutual Aid Association, the Science and Technology Mutual Aid Association, the Teachers’ Mutual Aid Association, the Korea Firefighters Mutual Aid Association, the Korea Local Administration Mutual Aid Association, the Korea Military Mutual Aid Association, and the Korea Local Finance Mutual Aid Association. This pledge was included in the People Power Party’s provincial policy pledge book.
Han Dong-hoon, the People Power Party’s emergency committee chairman, also directly mentioned this pledge last month during a joint interview with members of the Korea Local Newspaper Association. He also promised to support the attraction of related institutions and companies. The plan is to create a massive "asset management belt" in Jeonju, including the National Pension Service, which already has its headquarters in Jeonju, along with the sovereign wealth fund KIC and the seven major mutual aid associations. If realized, Jeonju’s political circles, media, and citizens will take a step closer to becoming South Korea’s "third financial hub," an idea that has been raised for some time.
The proposal to relocate KIC and the mutual aid associations to Jeonju is not new. Last year, Yang Kyung-sook, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, proposed a bill to relocate KIC’s headquarters from Seoul to Jeonju. At that time, Jin Seung-ho, KIC’s president, publicly opposed it, saying, "There are concerns about talent outflow, and there is no synergy to be gained by moving to Jeonju." Yang was the only politician to express regret over this statement. The bill did not progress, and the relocation proposal, which had been shelved after Yang’s failure to secure nomination in Jeonju-eul, has now been revived as a ruling party pledge.
Institutions: "No feasibility, nothing more or less than an election ploy"
Officials from the institutions said in unison, "This is an issue that has already been calculated to have no practical benefit, but it has been brought up again just for election purposes," adding, "It is completely unrealistic." Song Joo-ah, senior expert of the National Assembly’s Planning and Finance Committee, stated in a report reviewing the KIC relocation bill last year, "A significant outflow of specialized personnel is expected due to the relocation to a provincial area," and "Korea Investment Corporation, as an overseas investment specialized institution, holds the position that the losses from relocating to a provincial area are significant due to constraints on achieving its founding purpose of continuous national wealth creation and contribution to the development of the domestic financial industry." The report also added that all 15 global top sovereign wealth funds, including South Korea’s, are located in their respective countries’ capitals.
The National Pension Service has been experiencing severe personnel outflow since relocating to Jeonju in 2017. The number of resignations from the Fund Management Headquarters was about 9 in 2014 and 10 in 2015, but surged from 30 in 2016, when the provincial relocation was decided. Last year, 30 fund managers resigned, including some at the director level, who are core personnel. This was due to relatively low salaries compared to the industry and the unpopularity of being located in a provincial area. There have been ongoing calls to relocate the Fund Management Headquarters back to Seoul separately.
The opposition from the mutual aid associations is even stronger. They feel uncomfortable with the political circles meddling in the location of mutual aid associations, which are classified as "public service-related organizations," not public institutions. One mutual aid association official said, "The government holds no shares, and since the mutual aid associations are operated with assets contributed by members, the location should be decided by the members," adding, "Compared to public institutions, the number of personnel is small, so it is hard to see the 'relocation effect' as significant." He pointed out that even combined, the personnel of KIC and the seven major mutual aid associations number only about 2,000.
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