The long-delayed Saemangeum project will shift from attracting private investment to a public-led approach to speed up the work. The plan is to shrink the reclamation area by about 30% and move the schedule up by 15 years.
The Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency announced on the 20th a proposed change to the "Saemangeum master plan (MP)." It comes three years after Han Duck-soo, then prime minister, ordered a review of the Saemangeum MP in Aug. 2023 following the botched Saemangeum World Scout Jamboree. President Lee Jae-myung also said in a Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency briefing in Dec. last year regarding Saemangeum, "We need to acknowledge reality and quickly get done what can be done; we cannot keep going ambiguously for another 20 to 30 years."
The core of the proposed change is a shorter project timeline. The original completion target of 2050 has been moved up to 2035, about 15 years earlier. The area to be reclaimed will be reduced from 240.5 square kilometers to 169.6 square kilometers. Including 12.2 square kilometers of reserved land that can be designated by demand from corporations, the total reclamation area will be 181.8 square kilometers. Industrial land for factories and research facilities will be expanded to 37.5 square kilometers, more than double the current plan.
Support measures were also included for Hyundai Motor Group, which pledged to invest 9 trillion won. To ensure smooth progress on projects in the Saemangeum area that Hyundai Motor will break ground on in Mar. next year—including an artificial intelligence (AI) data center, a robotics cluster, a water electrolysis plant, and solar power generation—the government will swiftly handle related permitting procedures and provide administrative support such as land-use changes.
Specifically, the agency will add broadcasting and communications facilities to the permitted building uses in Zone 7 of Industrial Complex 1, where the data center will be located, by next month, and convert logistics/support land into industrial land. To allow resident staff, some of the industrial/research land in Zone 9 will be adjusted to residential land, and Agricultural Land Zone 5 will be changed to energy land and provided as onshore solar sites.
The base for supplying eco-friendly energy will also be further strengthened. The capacity of renewable energy facilities will be increased from the existing 7 GW (gigawatts) to 10 GW, and an "RE100 industrial complex" with benefits such as corporate tax burden reductions will be pursued. To foster the hydrogen industry, part of the tourism and leisure land in Industrial Complex 3 will be converted to industrial land and developed as a hydrogen-specialized industrial complex linked with nearby solar-hydrogen-related facilities, with the aim of building a hydrogen industry ecosystem in North Jeolla. Power and industrial water essential for nurturing advanced industries will be secured sufficiently to meet the demand of corporations, and work to expand sluice gates will proceed in parallel to improve lake water quality and prevent disasters.
Regarding the proposed change, the agency plans to gather opinions from related institutions and civil society, starting with a residents' briefing on the 24th and a public hearing in September. After deliberation by the Saemangeum Committee, the master plan is to be finalized by Oct.
Moon Seong-yo, head of the agency, said, "We will listen fully to local views on the proposed change to the master plan and push the reclamation forward with speed to deliver results people can feel," adding, "We will swiftly provide the support needed for Hyundai Motor Group and build the foundation for second and third global corporations to continue investing in Saemangeum."