The government and major domestic public corporations will release their procurement plans for government-led public works. The aim is to support business operations by disclosing in advance the extent to which government-funded projects will be commissioned going forward, as construction companies and construction materials corporations continue to struggle amid an economic slump. The government plans to accelerate project tenders this year by increasing the budget for social overhead capital (SOC).
According to the construction industry on the 24th, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) and the Construction Association of Korea will hold a briefing on "2026 public works procurement plans" on the 25th at the Construction Hall in Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul. At the event, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT), Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC), Korea National Railway, Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water), and Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) will disclose the scale and timing of public works to be commissioned by each entity this year. The MOLIT budget officer and key officials from each corporation will attend.
At the end of last year, the government set the 2026 MOLIT budget at 62.8 trillion won, allocating 21.1 trillion won (33.5%) of that to SOC. This is the largest amount ever, up 1.6 trillion won from the previous year. The government plans to move early on commissioning public works, including breaking ground ahead of schedule on LH's third new towns. The Construction Association of Korea expects 72 trillion won in public works procurement this year. Last year's total public works orders were 64.7 trillion won, down 3.4% from the previous year, but this year the project volume is expected to increase by more than 7 trillion won.
Looking at key procurement plans by agency, Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water) plans to commission a total of 3.6 trillion won (including construction, goods, and services). K-water will unveil at the briefing the "Songsan Green City–Siheung MTV second connection road" development project, a representative project slated for tender. The project will build a bridge and connecting road because Songsan Green City in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, and Siheung Multi Techno Valley (Siheung MTV) in Ansan are cut off by Lake Sihwa. DL E&C is constructing the first project to build a 2,830-meter road and bridge, with completion slated for May 2027. This year, K-water plans to tender the second connection road project, with a total construction cost of 649.6 billion won.
Korea National Railway will also announce at the briefing that it plans this year to commission a total of 2.7846 trillion won in subgrade foundation works—covering architecture, design, and construction—to prepare the ground for building railways and stations. Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) will also disclose procurement plans for parts of the third new towns development.
Kim Young-deok, senior research fellow at the Korea Research Institute for Construction Policy, said, "The private construction market is extremely depressed, and the government has said it will increase the SOC budget to place early tenders in the first half of the year to improve construction conditions," adding, "Public works will inevitably have to lead the market again this year."
Lee Eun-hyeong, research fellow at the Korea Institute of Construction Policy, said, "Due to the construction downturn and falling demand, tenders are not being placed in the private institutional sector, so more construction companies are relying on public-sector procurements," adding, "However, even in the public sector, contracts tend to go to corporations that have built up past performance, so there will likely be limits to how much this can improve management across all construction corporations."