Seoul Mayor Lee's Wisdom

Running governments with corporate management minds, cutting budget, reducing debts

Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak said he became the mayor of Seoul to let public servants at the Seoul City Hall learn a new, business management mindset. He said he spent most of his life in the business world and no matter what kind of work he does; he will never be able to shake off the business mindset from him. During a speech he made at a meeting of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry on December 20, he said Seoul City is in competition with large cities in Northeast Asia including Beijing, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, among others, not with other cities in the country like Busan, Gwangju and Daegu, among others. His objective is to make Seoul have its own separate roles, different from those rival foreign metropolises and he has been getting advises from the Seoul International Economic Consultants Group made of various global corporate CEOs who meet regularly every year. Its members pointed out various facts including the lack of flexible labor market, tough regulations, and problems for foreign firms when they arrive in the country such as education for their employees'children and the lack of jobs for spouses, the Seoul mayor said.
To create jobs for spouses of expatriate businessmen, Seoul City launched an English traffic radio service and special English classes for high schools during recesses, he said. The group has been effective in attracting foreign direct investment in the country. The American Insurance Group, which is a member of the advisory group, has decided to build a financial center in Yeouido in Seoul with 900 billion won in investment. Seoul City has been known to have undertaken large projects only such as the Cheonggyecheon project, mass transportation, and enticing foreign investment, although it has been carrying out those close to everyday life of its citizens.
Seoul has about 360,000 high school students, but every year from 7,000 to 8,000 of them is put in a position where they have to quit school because they can't afford to go anymore due to the poor economic conditions of their families. The city has been providing scholarships to those students to help them complete their high school education through the SH Corp., affiliated with the city, allocating 10 billion won a year from its budget since the city doesn't have that kind of money to spare for those students. The city has also been providing 180 billion won to help the needy including those families that need help due to their sudden financial demise, in addition to the construction of 1,000 rental houses to take care of low-income families.
One of the projects dear to his heart was removing shanty areas in the city through the redevelopment plans called "new town"plans. In order to launch the projects, the city had to pass them through 8 laws, which would have taken too much time. The mayor said he succeeded in simplifying those laws, along with administrative procedures. Mayor Lee also took credit for successful rearrangement of intra-city bus routes in Seoul. He thanked the bus companies and their employees for perseverance. He boasted that large foreign cities have asked for the city's know-how in reforming its transportation system to benchmark its success. The mayor called on the central government to leave the private school system alone, so that the schools can have freedom to manage the schools without government meddling. It is just not right for the government to tell schools how to run their board of directors, which is not the right direction for those schools in the 21st century, he said.
The first thing he did when he became the mayor was cutting the city's budget. He said he was able to cut from 7 to 800 billion won annually out of from 5 to 6 trillion won available to the city, he recalled. He also said he was able to reduce the city's debt from the construction of subways amounting to 4,800 billion won. He said when he leaves the City Hall next year; it will be reduced to 2,100 billion won, down by 60 percent from the time when he assumed the office. Like citizens who pay taxes, the government has the responsibility to save tax money. The government, however, spends more than their funds available, raising debt levels and tries to collect more taxes. The government has to learn from the Seoul City how to save funds and cut their budget. nw

Seoul Mayor
Lee Myung-bak