On the 30th, a dedicated organization to strengthen execution for dwellings supply, the Dwellings Supply Promotion Headquarters, will be launched.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said on the 29th that it has completed a reorganization to quickly supply dwellings where people want them and to push ahead without setbacks on core tasks such as ensuring safety.
First, as a dedicated organization to achieve the government's dwellings supply targets without setbacks, including the plan to supply 1.35 million homes in the greater Seoul area (the Sept. 7 package), the Dwellings Supply Promotion Headquarters will be launched. Under a Deputy Minister, the organization consists of a Dwellings Supply Policy Officer (six divisions) and a Dwellings Renewal Policy Officer (three divisions), for a total of 77 people.
Until now, MOLIT had operated the Public Dwellings Promotion Task Force as a dedicated organization for dwellings supply, but because it was run as an ad hoc (separate) organization, it had limits in terms of organizational stability and performance management. Functions related to dwellings supply, such as redevelopment and renewal of aging urban areas, were also dispersed across other units.
The newly established Dwellings Supply Promotion Headquarters strengthens accountability and consistency in dwellings supply policy by upgrading the existing director-general-level Public Dwellings Promotion Task Force to a Deputy Minister-level organization while consolidating scattered dwellings supply functions. Accordingly, the headquarters will comprehensively manage and execute policy tools for dwellings supply, including land development such as new towns, urban dwellings supply, and private-sector reconstruction and redevelopment projects.
Next, the Fair Construction Support Division will be newly established to oversee response policies against illegal subcontracting in construction that leads to shoddy work. MOLIT and the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) conducted a strong crackdown on illegal subcontracting in construction projects from Aug. to Sept., uncovering a total of 262 cases. Going forward, MOLIT will lead stronger crackdowns and plans to promote training and manual distribution for local governments and public institutions' enforcement staff, advance an AI-based enforcement system, and expand whistleblower rewards.
In addition, an Underground Safety Team will be created to take charge of subsidence prevention policy. While continuing to expand ex officio MOLIT investigations of areas at risk of subsidence that have been underway since this year, the new team will also push to improve related systems, such as revising the standard manual for responding to subsidence accidents.
The Dwellings Supply Promotion Headquarters and the Fair Construction Support Division will launch on Dec. 30 this year, and the Underground Safety Team will launch on Jan. 2 next year. Meanwhile, MOLIT has also added special judicial police investigators to root out illegal transactions that disrupt the dwellings market, as well as on-site enforcement personnel at regional land management offices to crack down on illegal subcontracting.
Moon Seong-yo, Deputy Minister for Planning and Coordination at MOLIT, said, "MOLIT bears a heavy sense of responsibility as a ministry directly related to securing housing, a basic right of the people, and to safety," adding, "With the newly established organizations such as the Dwellings Supply Promotion Headquarters at the center, we will do our utmost in our duties with a heightened resolve so that we can show the public clear results in the areas entrusted to MOLIT."