Yeongcheon City Councilor Kim Sangho Urges Measures, Saying “Half-Price Sales of Industrial Complexes Funded by Taxpayers Will Harm Citizens”

Five-Minute Speech at the 250th Extraordinary Session... Criticism of Indiscriminate, Unplanned Development and Fiscal Waste
Proposal of Measures to Prevent Environmental Pollution and Ensure Tangible Population Inflows Through Corporate Headquarters Relocation

Kim Sangho, a member of the Yeongcheon City Council and Chair of the Industrial and Construction Committee, has moved to put the brakes on Yeongcheon City’s indiscriminate industrial complex development projects, calling for thorough demand forecasting and a reasonable calculation of sale prices.

At the 2nd plenary session of the 250th extraordinary meeting of the Yeongcheon City Council held on the 4th, Councilor Kim delivered a five-minute speech, sharply criticizing that “the industrial complex developments being promoted under the slogan of ‘Yeongcheon, a city favorable for business’ are causing unplanned development without sufficient preliminary studies.”

At the second plenary session of the 250th extraordinary meeting of the Yeongcheon City Council held on the 4th, Councilor Kim Sangho is delivering a five-minute speech. Provided by Yeongcheon City Council.

According to Councilor Kim, 69.5 billion won of city funds have been invested in the Kumho General Industrial Complex, which is scheduled for completion in June and has an area of 85,000 pyeong.

He pointed out that the development cost reaches about 1.37 million won per pyeong, but if the land is sold at about half that price, it will result in a fiscal loss of around 34 billion won, and the burden of that loss will fall squarely on the citizens.

Councilor Kim said, “Having to attract companies even by offering half-price discounts is effectively an admission by the administration that it has failed in its market demand forecasting,” adding, “Sale prices that are unreasonably low compared to development costs amount to shifting a massive fiscal burden onto future generations.”

He also called for “qualitative growth” that goes beyond simply attracting companies.

Mentioning the reality that many workers at companies in the industrial complexes commute from Gyeongsan and Daegu, Councilor Kim questioned whether there are any measures in place to prevent so-called “eat-and-run” behavior, in which companies leave after pocketing only capital gains from rising land prices.

Along with measures to prevent pollution in order to protect residents’ right to health, he proposed establishing fundamental policies that would require companies to relocate their headquarters to Yeongcheon, thereby ensuring tangible increases in tax revenue and population inflows.

Meanwhile, Councilor Kim also actively clarified misunderstandings related to the budget for the Kumho Samho Industrial Complex that have recently surfaced.

He stressed, “Following last year’s 9 billion won budget increase, we allocated more than 7.2 billion won again this year so that the project could proceed without interruption,” adding, “I have been working on the ground for regional development, including taking the lead in securing 4 billion won for the Kumho-eup urban planning budget.”

In closing, Councilor Kim stated, “Even when politicians leave, Yeongcheon must remain a sustainable city,” and added, “I will thoroughly scrutinize the administration’s policies and fully carry out my role of monitoring and providing checks so that not even a single won of citizens’ hard-earned tax money is wasted.”