The presidential office will issue a bid notice on the 15th for site preparation work to build the "Sejong presidential office." The site for this project, which has a project cost of 9.8 billion won, is 350,000 square meters, and the construction period is 14 months. In particular, it will also hold a design competition for the Sejong office and plans to announce the winning entry at the end of this month. The presidential office expects to break ground as early as August next year.
Presidential Office Senior Secretary for Public Relations and Communications Lee Gyu-yeon said at a briefing on the 14th that "the Lee Jae-myung administration is pursuing strong national balanced growth policies to overcome the Seoul metropolitan area's single-core system and build a Korea where all regions prosper evenly," as the office announced these plans.
Lee said, "This site preparation work is meaningful for national balanced growth," adding, "It is the first action, the first construction, the first shovel to ensure that the promise to the public of completing the administrative capital is not left as a plan only on paper or a political slogan but put into practice on the ground."
Lee also said, "As the president has repeatedly expressed the intent to hold the retirement ceremony in Sejong, the president instructed swift construction so that the Sejong office can be used during the term," adding, "We will do our best so that we can move into the Sejong office by August 2029, as promised to the public."
The design competition for the Sejong presidential office will proceed simultaneously. After selecting the winner at the end of this month, the schedule is to begin building construction in August next year. This measure follows the president's instruction for the early completion of the Sejong office in line with the principles of "national balanced development" and "completion of the administrative capital." The move-in date the president pledged is August 2029.
Earlier, the president said at a year-end work briefing for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and other agencies, "(If we build the office in 2030 as originally planned) it would be just a brief visit," adding, "During the presidential race, I said several times, 'I'll probably stay in Yongsan, then go to the Blue House briefly, and hold the retirement ceremony in Sejong.'" After receiving a report from National Agency for Administrative City Construction Commissioner Kang Joo-yeop on the completion target, the president also said, "It would be good to speed up the completion."