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| Busan mayoral candidate Kim Young-choon of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, second from right, poses with his colleagues at the Busan Metropolitan Council, Tuesday, after announcing his election promises regarding financial policies. Courtesy of Kim's campaign office |
Realistic plans for Seoul, Busan financial hubs unseen in by-elections
By Park Jae-hyuk
Both ruling and opposite candidates in the Seoul and Busan mayoral by-election slated for April 7 have caused concerns because of their unrealistic and controversial election pledges that seem to be far from ideal in terms of fostering development of the two metropolitan cities as international financial hubs.
Their promises are considered ambiguous and populistic by financial industry insiders, given their plans do not satisfy the needs of global financial firms and some of their goals cannot be achieved by a single local government without support from the central government and the National Assembly.
Seoul mayoral candidate Park Young-sun of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) promised to make Yeouido an international financial center that can replace Hong Kong, but she did not come up with any incentive that global financial companies want, such as lower taxes and eased regulations. Although she has sought to circulate the city's own blockchain-based cryptocurrency, KS-Coin, this is considered to be similar to Zeropay mobile payment system, which was adopted by former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon.
Her major competitor, Oh Se-hoon of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) said he will allow Yeouido's neighboring areas to share the role as a financial hub by transforming the semi-industrial district in Mullae-dong into an advanced commercial and business district. However, he did not mention policies for global financial companies. Although he made various efforts for Seoul's financial hub vision during his term as the city's mayor between 2006 and 2011, his five most important pledges did not include action plans for such a vision.
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| Seoul mayoral candidate Oh Se-hoon of the main opposition People Power Party speaks in a YouTube video uploaded March 19 to announce his plan to allow Yeouido's neighboring areas to share the role as a financial hub. Captured from Oh's YouTube channel |
In Busan, both ruling and opposite mayoral candidates came up with the establishment of a virtual asset exchange in the city as a way to foster the global financial center.
Kim Young-choon of the ruling DPK announced last week he will establish the world's first public cryptocurrency exchange in Busan, which enables trades of major virtual assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. This is intended to transform the city into the global center of the new financial services, which can vie with Zug in Switzerland, where businesses use Bitcoin and Ethereum to pay taxes.
"The digital asset exchange is not absurd," he said. "It will be an opportunity for Busan's financial hub vision that has been sluggish over the past 20 years."
PPP's Park Hyung-joon also said earlier this month he will push ahead with the establishment of a digital asset exchange to create a global hub of new financial services and a blockchain cluster.
However, the central government still imposes strict regulations on virtual asset exchanges to prevent money laundering, tax evasion and overheated speculation, so Busan's establishment of such an exchange may destabilize the nation's overall policies on cryptocurrency.
