[Reporter's Desk] "Boryeong City Broke Its Promise"... Administration That Hurt Businesses, Trust Has Collapsed

Boryeong City Reneges on Subsidy Commitment, Now Faces Court
Lose-Lose Situation: Damaged Reputation Whether Winning or Losing

Boryeong City Hall Exterior View

There is a city where the local government failed to keep its promise to attract businesses, resulting in a collapse of administrative trust. This is the story of Boryeong City in South Chungcheong Province.

Boryeong City is now standing in court after reneging on its promise to provide subsidies to companies during the sale process of the Ungcheon General Industrial Complex.

Company A, based in Seoul and engaged in manufacturing, processing, and exporting dried seafood, invested 9 billion won in 2021 to build a factory, trusting Boryeong City's commitment to support 30% of the land purchase cost and 14% of the facility investment cost.

However, after construction was completed, the city unilaterally changed the payment criteria and refused to provide the subsidies.

In a recorded conversation, a Boryeong City official admitted, "The criteria have changed." This was the moment when the administration itself severed the thread of trust.

Ultimately, the company filed a state compensation lawsuit. However, this case does not simply end with the question of who wins.

Boryeong City stands to lose, regardless of the outcome.

Even if the city wins in court, it will be left with the stigma of being a "city that betrayed administrative trust," and if it loses, it will be responsible for compensation using taxpayer money.

Broken administrative trust cannot be restored with numbers alone.

The bigger issue is the impact this incident will have on the overall sale of local industrial complexes and the attraction of businesses to the region.

Will there be another company willing to invest, trusting the promises of the local government?

Attracting businesses is not just about incentives; it operates on the invisible capital of administrative "trust."

Once that trust is lost, the local economy quietly and gradually withers away.

Boryeong City explains that "the support criteria were changed at the time," but there is no excuse for altering the promise after the company had already completed its factory, without any prior notice or consultation.

If a local government cannot maintain policy consistency, investors will leave, and all that will remain is the stigma of being a "region with administrative risk."

Even now, Boryeong City must transparently disclose the circumstances behind its administrative decisions and present measures for compensating the company's losses as well as institutional improvements.

Trust can be destroyed in an instant, but it takes years to rebuild.

What is needed now is not a "legal excuse," but the "restoration of administrative trust."