Lee, Park on Collision Course Over Sejong Project
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak said Friday that the government and the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) should push ahead with the revision of the Sejong City plan.
In a breakfast meeting with GNP leaders, including Chairman Chung Mong-joon, at Cheong Wa Dae, Lee said his administration has done its best to find alternatives to the original Sejong plan.
Lee's remarks came a day after former GNP Chairwoman Rep. Park Geun-hye reiterated her objection to the administration's change of the original Sejong project to relocate nine ministries and four agencies out of Seoul.
Park, leader of the GNP's second-largest faction, has opposed the revision, saying it is disregarding representative democracy to override a state project that had been endorsed by parliament and backed by the people.
Only when the GNP, which has 169 seats in the 299-member National Assembly, is united, will it be possible to pass a bill on the revised plan to build a science-business town in the Chungcheong region.
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) also strongly opposes the revision.
President Lee pledged to revise the Sejong project in a nationally televised address last November and seek an alternative plan, calling the administrative town project the "wrong" policy.
President Lee said the governing party should do its best to explain the alternative plan, which will be made public Monday, to Chungcheong residents.
The government has been seeking to attract large companies and private educational institutions to Sejong, which is now under construction about 150 kilometers south of Seoul.
During the Cheong Wa Dae meeting, President Lee anticipated that the G20 Summit meeting slated for June in Canada would decide whether or not economic exit strategies should be put into effect.
"No country in the world has mapped out an exit strategy. Calls are still strong to boost extra spending," Lee said.
He said South Korea would see high economic growth in the first half of the year with effective budgeting.
The President reiterated that the top priority would be placed on job creation.
The government will hold monthly meetings on resolving unemployment, he said.