There is talk that office reassignments at the Government Complex Sejong will take place in January next year, right after the transfer of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to Busan. With ministries already newly created through the reorganization or set to be split off, "preferred placement plans" for each agency are steadily leaking out across the government. This reassignment is not a simple move of space but a "physical overhaul" of government ministries, drawing attention because it is directly tied to the completeness of the reorganization.
According to the government on the 27th, the Government Complex Management Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety is reviewing reassigning ministries' office locations in line with the government reorganization. The central focus in government circles is the placement of the Planning and Budget Office, which will be created by splitting the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Recently, within the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF), there has been talk that the Planning and Budget Office has been set to go to Building 5 of the Government Complex Sejong, which will be vacated by the transfer of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF). From the early days when the split of the MOEF was confirmed, Building 5 had been cited as a strong candidate site for the Planning and Budget Office, but after the transfer of financial policy functions fell through, MOEF employees apparently are not welcoming the idea. Instead, voices favoring "keeping the Planning and Budget Office in the central building" have grown louder.
This is due to concern over whether the Ministry of Finance and Economy, with its budgeting function removed, can properly perform its role of overseeing economic policy without financial functions. Even if the organization is split, budgeting and fiscal policy are closely intertwined, so narrowing the physical distance is better for administrative efficiency and for policy coordination.
A government official said, "The problems of a dualized organization—such as reduced policy synergy and damage to fiscal soundness—that the MOEF sought to resolve when it first launched as a 'giant ministry' are bound to recur," adding, "To minimize the downsides of the split, it is desirable to place them in close proximity." The point is that even if the organizations are separated, it is important to have a structure where the relationship does not grow distant.
The space allocation of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment is another focus in the Sejong government circle. Since its launch on the 1st, most of the energy-sector employees transferred from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy are still working in the existing MOTI building (Building 12). Because space at the climate ministry building (Building 6) is lacking, only about 20 of the 218 people slated for transfer have moved, forcing energy staff to endure inefficiency by traveling about 1 kilometer (about a 15-minute walk) just to attend a single meeting.
However, Building 6, which the climate ministry currently uses, is already at capacity, to the point that some departments are using an annex. To accommodate the additional 190 or so energy-sector personnel who still need to move, existing units would have to give up space. Accordingly, within the climate ministry, the most realistic scenario cited is that the National Agency for Administrative City Construction transfers elsewhere and the energy organization moves into that space.
The National Agency for Administrative City Construction is an agency established under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in 2006 to oversee and coordinate the construction of the new Sejong urban center. While the dominant view is that the agency would not welcome a sudden office move, there is also the view that "for a subordinate agency, being apart from its superior ministry, MOLIT, may not be a bad thing."
As such, discussions on moving each ministry's offices are intertwined with the final stage of the government reorganization. Because the spatial layout in Sejong determines the flow of administration, physical placement becomes the policy traffic line. As one government official said, "Office placement is the final button that gauges not only administrative efficiency but also the completeness of the government reorganization," and we hope the new government structure takes root more stably through the process of spatial readjustment.