By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
All eyes are now on the National Assembly, which will decide the fate of the plan to establish Sejong City as a hub for education, science and technology after the government unveiled its new proposal Monday.
The ruling camp plans to pass the revision to parliament by April.
However, the chances of the revised plan passing through the Assembly appear to be slim, considering that about 50 supporters of Rep. Park Geun-hye, the former chairwoman of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) who opposes the alternative plan, are standing by her.
The GNP, which has 169 seats in the 299-member unicameral chamber, cannot meet the quorum needed to pass the revision without the Park faction's support.
Opposition parties, including the main opposition Democratic Party and the Liberty Forward Party, vowed to vote against it.
Realizing the challenging environment, the administration and the ruling party are poised to launch a campaign to drum up public support.
Under the campaign, Prime Minister Chung Un-chan has set aside time for meetings with South Chungcheong residents to convince them in person that they will benefit from the revised plan, replacing the initial project to build an administrative town in the region.
Announcing the revision Monday, Chung said the government will complete the ongoing construction of Sejong, located about 150 kilometers south of Seoul, by 2020, 10 years earlier than originally planned.
The prime minister said the revision would create 250,000 jobs in the new city, which would have a population of 500,000.
Under the plan, several conglomerates, including Samsung, Lotte and Hanwha, will build research facilities in the city and universities will set up institutes there.
In addition to Chung's visit, government sources say that President Lee Myung-bak is considering paying a visit to Chungcheong Province to pitch the new plan.
Policymakers believe that effective marketing of the revised plan is the key to getting residents to believe that it will be beneficial for them, the sources said.
If those residents were to support the new plan, then the drive for rallying against the alternative plan would lose momentum.
That could lead Park's supporters to change their votes in the Assembly.
If the vote among Park supporters were to be split, Lee's aides forecast that the chances of the revised plan being passed in parliament would be high.
But some political pundits say that even if the public gives the government the green light for the new plan, the ruling camp will inevitably face the criticism that it dropped the plan that was passed with bipartisan support during the previous administration five years ago.
They did not rule out the possibility of the GNP being split into two -- followers of President Lee and supporters of Park -- if the former chairwoman remains unchanged in her position to object to the revision.