Minister Kim Yun-duk of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on the 9th that the government would "expose and fix unfair practices in the operation of (expressway) service areas."
The Minister visited the Giheung service area in Gyeonggi Province that day, met with small business tenants, and inspected how the service area is being run.
Tenant businesses such as restaurants and souvenir shops inside service areas are selected by private operators that win bids from the Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC). In other words, the structure is tenant business–private operator–Korea Expressway Corporation. On this, the Minister was said to have looked into whether the Korea Expressway Corporation condoned cases in which private operators delayed payments to tenant businesses or improperly charged goodwill fees and facility costs.
At the meeting, the Minister was briefed that the Korea Expressway Corporation had not responded with measures such as terminating contracts against private operators that failed to pay tenant businesses. The Minister said, "Isn't it the case that the Korea Expressway Corporation, which should supervise the operators, effectively left the situation unattended without structural efforts to improve it?"
She then said that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), the agency that should oversee the Korea Expressway Corporation, must also reflect on itself. The Minister said, "We will root out and correct unfair practices, not only unfair cases between tenant businesses and private operators but also the operation of service areas by the Korea Expressway Corporation retirees' group."
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) plans to conduct a full survey this month of expressway service areas nationwide to determine whether there have been delays in payments and other issues.