Haeoreum Alliance 3 Cities, 36 Projects in 5 Major Areas
Presenting a Win-Win Model, Leaping to a New Growth Hub
Three cities?Ulsan, Pohang, and Gyeongju?are establishing and promoting the ‘Haeoreum Alliance 2024 Urban Development Implementation Plan’ to emerge as new growth hubs in South Korea comparable to the Seoul metropolitan area.
On the 16th, Ulsan City announced that this implementation plan consists of 36 projects across five major sectors: economy, industry and maritime, transportation infrastructure, culture and tourism, disaster prevention and safety, and governance and systems.
The key points include ▲ fostering new industries based on eco-friendly energy and forming a unified economic zone ▲ linking a super-regional transportation network to strengthen functions as a shared living and economic area ▲ enhancing functional and physical tourism connectivity ▲ establishing a smart cooperative system among regions for joint disaster and accident response ▲ and setting up governance and institutional frameworks for the Haeoreum Alliance.
According to the plan, the three cities will form working-level councils by sector and actively promote super-regional joint cooperation projects.
Kim Doo-gyeom, Mayor of Ulsan, stated, “With the full-scale implementation of this plan and joint cooperation projects, not only will the Haeoreum Alliance be strengthened, but the linked cooperation among the three cities will contribute to overcoming the era of local extinction caused by population outflow and concentration in the Seoul metropolitan area.”
Lee Kang-deok, Mayor of Pohang, said, “We will steadily carry out growth engines that can lead the local era, such as the creation of the Haeoreum eco-friendly advanced industrial belt, along with joint cooperation projects that citizens can directly experience.”
Joo Nak-young, Mayor of Gyeongju, remarked, “We will work diligently to implement the plan intensively to strengthen cooperation among the three Haeoreum Alliance cities and further become a leader in the super-regional win-win model.”
The Haeoreum Alliance is an administrative council formed by the three cities of Ulsan, Pohang, and Gyeongju, which were linked as a living zone following the opening of the Ulsan-Pohang Expressway in June 2016.
Since the alliance’s formation, joint cooperation projects have been continuously promoted to enhance spatial and functional connectivity in various fields such as industry and research & development (R&D), culture, tourism and exchange, urban infrastructure, and agriculture and livestock.
Last year, these cities analyzed the achievements of existing joint cooperation projects and sought to discover new cooperative projects through the Ulsan-Gyeongbuk Research Institute by conducting the ‘Haeoreum Alliance Urban Development Strategic Study.’ As a result, development strategies for six sectors and 47 projects were identified, forming the basis for the implementation plan.
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