Kim Dong-yeon: "K-Culture Valley to Proceed as Originally Planned... Considering Overseas Investment Attraction"

Gyeonggi Province spokesperson Kang Min-seok is holding a press conference on the re-promotion of K-Culture Valley on the 17th.

Gyeonggi Province will resume the K-Culture Valley project as originally planned. To expedite the project, a special account for K-Culture Valley will be established, and overseas investment attraction will also be pursued. Additionally, a 'Geon-Gyeong-Un-Min' policy will be introduced, where construction is handled by Gyeonggi Province and operation is managed by the private sector.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 17th that Governor Kim Dong-yeon held an emergency meeting on the evening of the 16th at a location in Yeouido, Seoul, with Democratic Party lawmakers Lee Ki-heon, Kim Young-hwan, and Kim Seong-hoe, all from Goyang, and reached this agreement.

At the meeting, Governor Kim emphasized, "There are rumors that apartments will be built on the arena site, but that is not true," and stated, "The K-Culture Valley project will proceed as planned."

He also explained, "After announcing the project promotion method as ‘public development’ for K-Culture Valley, a dedicated organization has been formed to make efforts for early groundbreaking," adding, "The core of public development will be ‘Geon-Gyeong-Un-Min’." Geon-Gyeong-Un-Min means that construction is undertaken by Gyeonggi Province, and operation is managed by the private sector.

Governor Kim said, "Since CJ showed a low progress rate of 3% over 8 years, Gyeonggi Province plans to take responsibility for construction in cooperation with GH," and added, "Afterwards, operation will be pursued with participation from leading domestic and international entertainment companies such as HYBE and AEG."

He promised, "To expedite the project, we will secure responsible capital," and said, "First, we will create a ‘K-Culture Valley Special Account’." He also expressed intentions to attract overseas investment.

In conclusion, he stated, "We will carry out this entire process transparently and swiftly," and expressed expectations, saying, "The K-Culture Valley project has not been ‘scrapped,’ nor ‘abandoned,’ and certainly not ‘stranded.’ When CJ was in charge, the overall progress rate was 3% over the past 8 years, but now the project will be promoted with a new lead and a bigger vision."

Kang Min-seok, spokesperson for Gyeonggi Province, held a press conference on the 17th and said, "Governor Kim Dong-yeon and three Democratic Party lawmakers representing Goyang?Lee Ki-heon, Kim Young-hwan, and Kim Seong-hoe?agreed on three points during an emergency meeting the previous day: maintaining the original form of the K-Culture Valley project, rapid promotion, and securing responsible capital."

The ‘K-Culture Valley project’ is a plan to create a K-content complex space on approximately 90,000 pyeong of land within the Goyang Tourism and Culture Complex in Ilsandong-gu, Goyang City. The project implementer, CJ Live City, began the K-Culture Valley project in August 2016 by starting construction of a performance hall on lodging land, but construction was halted in January 2017 due to CJ Live City’s circumstances. Later, CJ Live City resumed arena construction in November 2021 but again stopped construction from April 2023 due to negotiations over contract method changes. Gyeonggi Province judged further negotiations to be difficult and decided earlier this month to terminate the agreement, citing CJ Live City’s lack of commitment to project promotion.