Reflected Proposal at Economic Ministers' Meeting... Consultation with Ministry of Economy and Finance
Discovery of Private Business Sites and Reduction of Initial Investment Costs
Public and Private Joint Promotion from Planning Stage... Expansion of Citizen Facilities
Seoul City is launching the nation's first 'competitive private investment project,' where publicly available sites are disclosed first and creative business plans are solicited from the private sector.
Seoul City announced that after close discussions with the Ministry of Economy and Finance, its proposal was reflected in the agenda item 'Measures to Revitalize Private Investment' scheduled for the Economic Ministers' Meeting on the 2nd, and the first project will commence in October.
Until now, private investment projects proposed by the private sector started with the private sector discovering the project, establishing a business plan, and submitting a proposal. However, if the proposed project could not proceed for various reasons, the private sector had to bear the initial investment costs entirely, which became a major obstacle to project activation.
Accordingly, since early this year, Seoul City has been gathering opinions and holding discussions with experts and private business operators to revitalize private investment projects, leading to the promotion of a new 'competitive private investment project.' In this model, when a private business operator's proposal is selected for publicly disclosed available land, the public and private sectors collaborate from the planning stage. This systematizes the site discovery and planning stages, which are considered one of the difficulties in private investment projects, reducing the burden on private business operators and improving efficiency.
Compared to private investment projects announced by the government or local governments, this approach has the advantage of gathering more creative private ideas. Through this project, Seoul City plans to revitalize private investment projects on city-owned land with low utilization due to changes in population structure and socio-economic conditions, and significantly expand social infrastructure to improve citizens' quality of life.
The pilot project for the 'competitive private investment' will be conducted in October. This project focuses on revenue-generating private investment projects centered on living SOC (social overhead capital), and detailed schedules will be announced later. Private business operators selected through the competition will become priority negotiation candidates and prepare proposals, during which they will receive consulting on policy directions from Seoul City. Subsequently, upon submitting the proposal under the Private Investment Act, they will be granted the status of the original proposer.
Im Chang-su, Director of Future Space Planning at Seoul City, said, "We will transform underutilized city-owned public sites, which have declined in use due to social and economic changes, with fresh ideas from the private sector and return the benefits directly to citizens." He added, "By revitalizing competitive private investment projects, we will spread Seoul's excellent model nationwide, enhancing the quality of life not only for Seoul citizens but for all Koreans."
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