Land Minister Kim Yun-duk said the government will select public institutions for the second round of relocations out of the capital area by the end of this year and begin moving them next year, using leased private buildings among other options. Whether to revive a special housing supply program for employees of relocating agencies will be decided after further discussion.
Kim made the remarks at a press conference on public institution relocation held at the Government Complex Seoul on the 3rd. "Relocating public institutions to the provinces is the most effective way to ease concentration in the capital area and create new growth engines and quality jobs in the regions," he said.
He laid out five principles for the relocation: minimizing the number of agencies remaining in the capital area, clustering them together, linking them with local universities and industries, expanding self-sufficient living infrastructure, and moving at speed.
"We will fully review the criteria that were applied to allow agencies to stay during the first round," Kim said. "Unless an agency absolutely must remain, we will in principle include it among those to be relocated."
The agencies will be placed mainly in existing innovation cities. "We will pursue relocation centered on existing innovation cities, giving full consideration to the growth engines under the government's regional balanced-growth initiative (the '5-pole, 3-special-zone' plan) and to the functional clusters already in those innovation cities," Kim said. The ministry will also seek to link the relocations with local industries and universities. "Through industry-academia cooperation, we will create quality jobs and have the relocated public institutions serve as anchors driving regional growth and innovation," he said.
The government also plans to develop innovation cities into regional growth hubs by improving living conditions such as transportation, education, health care and culture. "The idea is to concentrate and cluster institutions tied to the strategic industries originally assigned to each innovation city they move to," Kim said. "The key is to build a basis for attracting companies."
On whether the special housing supply program for employees of relocating institutions will be revived, Kim said further discussion is needed. The program had been offered to workers at agencies that moved to Sejong, but was abolished in 2021 after controversy over preferential treatment and resale of the units. "There were aspects that drew negative assessments during the first round of relocation," Kim said. "We need time to review it and to gather opinions, so we will make a final decision after discussion."
To speed up the moves, the government will use methods such as leasing private buildings rather than waiting for new government buildings to be built. Under that plan, the first wave of relocations will begin next year. "We will sharply raise the level of support compared with the first round, and provide heavier support to agencies that move farther and faster," Kim said. "We will also prepare effective housing support measures to minimize the burden on employees of relocating institutions who have to move their lives in a short period."
Asked why the relocation announcement came later than originally planned, Kim said: "It is true that it has been delayed, and it needs to go through a process of public debate. The parliamentary audit of government agencies falls during that preparation period, and discussions do not move actively then, so a delay was unavoidable."
