ed Sejong City in limbo

Without exception, populist pork-barrel projects leave negative traces and confusion caused by the launch of the Sejong Special Self-Governing City is a good example.

Almost one month has elapsed since the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries took the initiative of moving to the administrative town on Dec. 10. True, initial confusion was expected, but the extent of the chaos now apparent was beyond imagination amid signs that the anticipated administrative inefficiency is becoming worse.

The salient feature of the problem is vividly shown by the fact that Strategy and Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan reported for duty at Sejong City, some 120 kilometers south of Seoul, for only three days after his ministry completed its move on Dec. 20. To our surprise, he didn’t spend a single night in the city because of his schedule in the metropolitan area. Still, Bahk spends most of his time working at an extra office in central Seoul.

This is not an exceptional case for Minister Bahk. So far, the Prime Minister’s Office and five ministries relocated to Sejong City and many of the agencies’ ranking officials, including the ministers, suffer from the same problem. Considering that the National Assembly in Seoul is open for nearly eight months a year, the problem is all the more serious.

At present, about 2,000 officials at the six agencies reportedly commute from Seoul to Sejong City and most of them are hardly able to do their work in the evening if they are to meet the train and bus schedule departing for Seoul.

Government officials who moved to Sejong City also grapple with various problems. More than anything else, many of them are obliged to live separately from their families.

Of course, all these problems were anticipated and they need to be addressed fundamentally. For now, however, there should be durable measures to overcome the anticipated administrative inefficiency arising from the division of the administration.

Against this backdrop, innovating outdated administrative practices is a must. This means that such new and advanced systems as email reporting and video conferencing should be implemented actively. This will require an across-the-board change in the way of thinking on the part of public servants.

Simultaneously, the presidential office and the National Assembly need to change their ways of doing business to minimize officials’ travels to and from Seoul. And the Assembly may consider setting up its branch in Sejong City.