Opposition hits out at warning over Sejong City

By Lee Tae-hoon

Staff reporter

Opposition parties and civic groups raised their voices against the government's threat to revoke business incentives that it had proposed earlier this year, if the revised development plan for the new town in South Chungcheong Province is rejected.

"Presidential secretaries are threatening the people, saying they will suffer a loss if the original plan is implemented," Park Jie-won, floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), said Monday.

On Sunday, Park Jae-wan, senior presidential secretary for state affairs planning, said if the National Assembly votes against the amendment, Sejong City will likely lose many of the pre-arranged business deals.

Chung Jong-hwan, minister of land, transport and maritime affairs, also warned in a parliamentary standing committee that, if the Assembly decides to go ahead with the original plan, many of the businesses may give up relocating their units to the new town.

Under the revision, a more business-friendly town was to have been built in the central region, instead of relocating nine ministries and four government agencies from Seoul as originally planned.

Opposition lawmakers, however, claimed that such a warning goes against President Lee Myung-bak's promise to let the legislature determine the fate of the Sejong City and respect its decision.

They believe that the government should continue to make efforts to attract businesses, on top of relocating government offices to the new town in the central region, if the revision bills are scrapped.

The ruling and opposition parties agreed last week to put a set of disputed bills on Sejong City to a vote at the legislature this month.

Observers say the Assembly will likely vote down the bills as both opposition parties and many lawmakers in the governing Grand National Party (GNP) have expressed strong objection to their passage.

Amid mounting pressure to withdraw the government-proposed bills after the GNP's defeat in the June 2 local elections, President Lee urged the Assembly last Monday to decide on the fate of the project during the current parliamentary session.