On the 3rd, President Lee Jae-myung held a press conference titled 'Answering the people' to mark his 30th day in office, expressing a strong commitment to regional priority policies. President Lee presented 'balanced regional development' as a key task for the new government and stated, "In terms of policy and budget allocation, we need to go beyond local consideration to implement regional priority policies to restore a bit of balance," also revealing his plan for 'weighted regional distribution.'
President Lee noted, "At the Cabinet meeting, I instructed them to create a sort of weighted table for regional considerations when the government decides on policies or allocates budgets," explaining, "We should combine various indices, such as distance from the metropolitan area and distance from local large cities, to give weights by region for budget allocations." He added, "In the future, when allocating the grant-in-aid (non-earmarked tax) or SOC budget, we are also considering a method that makes it mandatory to automatically analyze the impact of regional balanced development by multiplying it."
Considering the concentration in the metropolitan area and the population extinction in local regions, President Lee expressed a negative stance on the development of new cities in the metropolitan area. He remarked, "Creating new cities in relation to the concentration in the metropolitan area has become a recent topic of debate," and added, "They say we should create a new city even at the expense of damaging the greenbelt because there is a housing shortage, but from the perspective of local regions, the concentration in the metropolitan area causes housing issues, and continuing to create new cities only leads to more concentration."
In this process, President Lee also compared the expansion of housing supply in the metropolitan area to "continuing to drink saltwater because one is thirsty." He further stated, "We cannot change what has already been decided. However, we must review whether to continue creating new ones from the perspective of sustainable growth and development strategy."
President Lee emphasized that the planned new city projects should proceed as originally planned, saying, "We must proceed with the construction of the existing planned new cities. We are considering speeding up the process." He also mentioned, "The real estate supply measures involve not only new sites for new cities but also many ways to recycle existing sites and utilize current land. We may also consider increasing density."
He also indicated an intention to pursue additional measures to curb demand alongside supply expansion. Regarding the recently announced '6 billion won limit on mortgage loans in the financial sector,' President Lee said, "This is just a preliminary measure," adding, "There are many more fundamental demand suppression measures beyond this."
He continued, "As the concentration in the metropolitan area deepens in our narrow territory, speculative demand is severely disrupting the real estate market," and stated, "It won't come easily, but I think it would be much better if (investment capital) moves to the financial market instead of real estate. I plan to change the overall direction so that the population does not overly concentrate in the metropolitan area."
Regarding the second public institution transfer plan, he stated, "We have not yet established specific plans." President Lee noted, "The transfer of second public institutions is necessary for balanced regional development," adding that "once the relevant ministries are restructured, we will establish a plan."
Concerning the 'transfer of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to Busan,' he remarked, "The further away you are from the metropolitan area, the more serious the situation is," saying, "The Chungcheong region is commuting to and from the metropolitan area, and the so-called 'southern limit line' is coming down." He added, "The situation in Honam, Yeongnam, and Gangwon, which are beyond the southern limit line, is better," and stated, "Daejeon, Chungnam, and Sejong have benefited from the relocation of the administrative capital and public institution transfers. We will not say, 'We will take everything' over moving one to a more disadvantaged area."
In response to calls for 'relocation of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries' in Incheon, he said, "Incheon is a growing city," and added, "There is a question of whether to place the maritime court in Incheon or Busan, but if there is demand, we can do both."
President Lee continued, "I plan to concentrate policies and finances on Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam (Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam), the southeast region, and the Honam region," stating, "One of these initiatives is to establish 10 Seoul National Universities. We will create a new center through a comprehensive policy involving infrastructure development, talent cultivation institutions, living conditions, corporation attraction, and energy supply."