Gyeonggi-do and Pocheon City Urge Government to Designate Pocheon City as a 'Opportunity Development Zone'

Pocheon City Air Force Friendly Fire Incident Causes Extreme Anxiety Among Residents
Special Disaster Zone Declaration Focuses Only on Damage Recovery and Compensation
Government-Level Measures Needed for Residents' Economic Sacrifices and Daily Anxieties

Gyeonggi Province and Pocheon City have urged the government to designate Pocheon City, which was declared a special disaster zone due to damage caused by a fighter jet friendly fire accident, as an Opportunity Development Zone.

Pocheon City has deployed 72 public officials to proactively respond to the site of abnormal military bomb drops. Photo by Pocheon City

On the 12th, according to Gyeonggi Province, the province sent an official letter titled “Urgent Request for Designation of Pocheon City as an Opportunity Development Zone” to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Local Era Committee.

Gyeonggi Province explained the background of urging the designation of the Opportunity Development Zone by stating that although the government declared Idong-myeon in Pocheon City a special disaster area, this declaration focuses only on short-term damage recovery and compensation, and government-level support measures are needed for the economic sacrifices and daily anxieties experienced by residents.

The Opportunity Development Zone, promoted as a national agenda by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, is a system that revitalizes the local economy by granting tax and other benefits to special zone companies to attract regional investment. If designated as an Opportunity Development Zone, various tax and regulatory exemptions will provide a groundbreaking opportunity for regional development.

Under the Local Decentralization and Balanced Development Act, non-metropolitan areas can apply for designation of an Opportunity Development Zone at any time through the provincial governor. In contrast, in the metropolitan area, only regions selected by the Local Era Committee among 10 border and population-decreasing cities and counties can apply.

The problem is that the Local Era Committee is still deliberating on the selection of eligible application areas, citing balanced development with non-metropolitan areas as the reason. As a result, while 48 non-metropolitan districts including Busan City have been designated in three phases and the fourth designation process is underway, Gyeonggi Province has not even been able to apply.

Pocheon City, a border area within the metropolitan area and a population-decreasing region, suffers a double burden of being excluded from opportunities for industrial investment, deregulation, and youth population inflow through special zone designation due to its metropolitan status, in addition to sacrifices for national security. If designated as an Opportunity Development Zone, Pocheon City is highly likely to grow into a hub for the drone defense industry and can utilize the recent military shooting range as a base for win-win development among civilians, government, and military.

Accordingly, Gyeonggi Province and Pocheon City strongly urged the government for ▲ prompt administrative processing such as establishing application guidelines for metropolitan border and population-decreasing areas by the Local Era Committee and ▲ designation of Pocheon City as an Opportunity Development Zone to restore the local economy and create growth engines.

Lee Gye-sam, Director of the Balanced Development Office of Gyeonggi Province, said, “The special disaster area declaration related to the recent Air Force friendly fire accident is only for damage recovery, so as compensation for 75 years of sacrifice and anxiety, the government should provide extraordinary measures such as designating an Opportunity Development Zone for future economic development.”

Meanwhile, Gyeonggi Province is working to designate Pocheon City as a Peace Economy Zone and an Economic Free Zone to revitalize the local economy and create growth engines in northern Gyeonggi.