No end in sight for science-belt debate

By Kang Seung-woo

Feasibility issues have forced the Lee Myung-bak government to scrap plans to build a new international airport in the country’s southeastern. It remains to be seen whether the lavish scheme to establish an ``international science-business belt’’ will be the next campaign pledge to be reneged on.

As with other big projects promised by the Lee administration, the science-business belt plan appears to have been disrupted by regional bickering and political philistinism.

The central Chungcheong Province is urging Lee to keep the promise he made during his presidential campaign and locate the industrial complex near the heart of the country.

However, regions in Korea’s southwest (Gwangju, the Jeolla provinces), southeast (Daegu, Pohang, the Gyeongsang provinces) and even Seoul’s neighboring city of Gwacheon appear to be in play for the science-belt as well.

The 3.5 trillion won (about $3.22 billion) plan is to build a Korean equivalent to California’s Silicon Valley, with an emphasis on biotech and information technology, as well as a heavy ion accelerator by 2015. A special bill was passed by the National Assembly and will become law on April 5.

The plan has been a source of controversy since Lee suggested that the plans need to be rewritten and sites other than Chungcheong should be considered in a television appearance in February.

``A specific site wasn’t included in the campaign pledge. A committee will be formed under the prime minister’s office to select the candidate site for the science belt project, fair and square,’’ Lee said during the interview.

The fight over the right to host the industrial complex has been escalating, especially after the government halted the building of an airport that had been planned for near either Busan or Daegu. There is speculation that the science-technology complex will be carved up with different regions being rewarded with different parts. Core facilities may be going to the southeast regions to massage the egos of locals angered over the scrapping of the airport plan, a scenario that appears to have political backing within the government and ruling Grand National Party (GNP).

Gwangju in the southwest region, insists that it should be getting the basic science research institute and the heavy ion accelerator with second and third ``campuses’’ shared between the Gyeongsang and Chungcheong provinces.

Predictably regional officials in the Chungcheong area have balked at the plan.

Scientists believe that the division of the science belt by political and regional interest could derail the initial goal of the project, insisting there will be no synergy.

In addition, the separated science complex will not be able to lure high-profile schools and major science and technology ventures.

“When the National Assembly passed the bill for the science-business belt, the basic science research institute and a heavy ion accelerator were set to be placed together. However, a research institute without a heavy ion accelerator is almost like a lab at a university,” said a professor at a Seoul-based university.

ksw@koreatimes.co.kr