Moon to promote southern coast as tourist hub

President Moon Jae-in speaks during an event at the headquarters of the South Jeolla provincial administration in Muan, Friday. The event was organized to promote the region's "blue economy" strategy for rebuilding the region as a hub of tourism and new industries. Yonhap

By Do Je-hae

President Moon Jae-in visited some emerging tourism destinations in the nation's southern region Friday to underscore his administration's focus on advancing the tourism industry as a key growth engine, and supporting regional economies.

It is part of his core domestic policy to achieve balanced national development.

The President first stopped at the headquarters of the South Jeolla provincial administration in Muan to be briefed on the economic strategies being pushed by South Jeolla Governor Kim Yung-rok, a former lawmaker and agricultural minister.

During an event, Moon reiterated his backing for Governor Kim's ambitious plan to make the province a maritime tourist hub, emphasizing that South Jeolla's development was pivotal for national growth. The governor briefed the President about his strategy for a “blue economy” that develops the region's energy, tourism, bio and other sectors.

“The blue economy will be a blue chip for the development of South Jeolla and revitalization of the nation's economy," Moon said. “South Jeolla Province is leading the new energy industry by ranking first in terms of renewable energy generation in the country." The region has been considered the center for renewable energy here with one of the nation's highest levels of energy generated by solar and sea wind farms.

In addition, he underscored the region's status as a leader in future industries with plans to establish new centers for drones and electric automobiles.

Moon also expressed staunch support for the province's strategies to become a global tourist magnet. With the FINA World Championships now being held in Gwangju, South Jeolla has been active in raising its profile as a global tourist center.

The core of the project is the creation of a tourist belt along the southern coast from Younggwang County to the nation's largest port city of Busan. “The government will support the project to build a tourism and recreation belt on the southwest coast to bring up to 60 million tourists to the South Jeolla region,” Moon said. “We will continue to improve the transportation infrastructure so that more people can enjoy the beauty of South Jeolla Province,” he said. For this, the President explained that the government will speed up the construction of a new express railway that passes through Muan International Airport.

The President later visited the city of Naju, in the mid-western part of South Jeolla Province, to check on the progress of its development as an “innovative city.”

Naju was selected in January as the location for KEPCO TECH, which will be established as a top academic institute in the region to compete with other prestigious tech universities ― KAIST in Chungcheong and POSTECH in South Gyeongsang provinces.

Moon has shown huge interest in the KEPCO TECH project as it was one of his campaign pledges. South Jeolla envisions a hub of new industries with the opening of the university. “We will continue to support the project with the aim of opening it by 2022 as planned,” Moon said.

Naju was designated an innovative city by the previous Roh Moo-hyun administration, along with some other cities in underdeveloped parts of the country, to house public corporations and agencies.

The aim is to rebrand the smaller cities as economic, administrative and academic centers for regional growth and balanced national development. Since the designation, 16 public agencies have moved to Naju, including KEPCO and the Korea Rural Community Corporation.

The visit to South Jeolla is part of Moon's tour of provinces and cities outside Seoul since October 2018 to check on the progress of their initiatives for economic revitalization and new growth engines to spur balanced national development.

Friday's visit marked the resumption of the economic tour that has been on hold due to the President's hectic diplomatic schedule. His previous visit was to North Chungcheong Province, May 22. The South Jeolla visit is his 10th regional economic trip. He has also visited North Gyeongsang, South Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces, and the cities of Ulsan, Daejeon, Busan and Daegu.