Sejong City Pursues Balanced National Development

MACCA is building the city for the relocation of government agencies starting in 2012




A bird-eye view of Sejong City. (inset)Han Man Hee, chairman of the Multi-functional Administrative City Construction Agency (MACCA), who has recently been promoted to the second vice minister of the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.


"The construction of Sejong City is not just the establishment of a new city, but part of the national task of ensuring balanced national development and creating new growth engines in the central region,"said Han Man-hee, chairman of the Multi-functional Administrative City Construction Agency (MACCA).
MACCA is charged with building such hardware as infrastructure and government buildings as well as software functions for furthering its development.
"We strive to make Sejong City an Asian hub of education/science and culture/art by offering administrative functions and attracting and establishing Korean and foreign prestigious universities and art constitutions," Han said.
The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and the MACCA chairman, which touched on the construction of government buildings as well as infrastructure and amenities to prepare for the three-stage relocation of government agencies to Sejong City starting in 2012.

Question: the passage of the act on the establishment of Sejong City has now built a legal and institutional foundation. Will you tell our readers about the progress of the multi-functional administrative city?
A:The construction of Sejong City is divided into two - the construction of government buildings and infrastructure by the government and Land & Housing Corp. (LH) and the construction of housing and commercial buildings by the private sector.
Construction of government buildings and infrastructure will cost a combined 22.5 trillion won - 8.5 trillion won from government coffers and 14 trillion won from the project performer. The process of the work was 30.03 percent complete as of March 3. The work on a structure that will house the Prime Minister' Office in the first section of Phase I was 45.7 percent complete as of the end of February, and it is to reach 90 percent by the end of the year. The second section of Phase I for housing economic government ministries, including the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF) broke ground last October and is to be 40 percent complete by the end of the year with dedication slated for next November. The Phase II project for accommodating the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) is to break ground this coming November with completion slated for October 2013.
We'e aggressively pushing ahead with projects to build infrastructure, including metropolitan roads, intra-city traffic facilities and basic environmental facilities. A trunk road linking Daejeon and Yooseong will be dedicated by year-end, and roads, including the one connecting Osong Railroad Station and Jeongan Intersection and the western section of the mass transportation roads, will be opened to traffic during next year. Such infrastructure as tap water, wastewater treatment facilities and waste disposal plants will be installed before residents move into their new residences.
Ninety-nine percent of the 1,582 units in the Cheotmaeul (First Village) housing of the Phase I project have been sold out since its public offering last October, while 3,576 units in the second phase project will be sold in the first half of the year.

Q: The act on the establishment of Sejong City stipulates that the scope of the multi-functional administrative city should be extended to cover the remaining unzoned parts of the Yeongi area. What? is MACCA's thinking on that?
A: Since the remaining parts of the Yeongi area that were left out of the development zone are now covered by the administrative city, it is proper to work out mid- and long-term Sejong City development strategies for the whole Yeongi area. It is desirable for the Sejong Special Self-governing City Government, which will be launched next July, to play a leading role in the planning. Even before that, MACCA plans to gather public opinions with the existing local governments, residents and experts and hold consultations with the Prime Minister's Office and the MLTM on the connectivity of Sejong City and the newly covered districts.

Q: Sejong City is to accommodate central government agencies and related organizations. How does MACCA address infrastructure insufficiencies and officials's moving issues?
A: During the period between 2012 and 2014, 36 government organizations and 10,452 officials are to move into Sejong City.
Initially, steps to supply housing to officials moving into the city, tailored to meet their needs, are in place. Government officials' rental houses and official residences will be constructed to house officials moving without their families.
In efforts to bring about settlement at the earliest date, MACCA plans to accommodate cultural, welfare, commercial and convenience facilities in the interests of occupant officials and their families. In particular, six schools will be built in 2011 at the Cheotmaeul Village on top of such specialty schools as a foreign high school and a science high school, which are to be dedicated in 2013 and 2014, respectively, as well as a national library and a metropolitan welfare support center. The projected tentatively-named Mirae (Future) School, offering ubiquitous individual and interactive learning services at any time and at any place, will be also introduced to provide an optimum educational environment to the city.

Q: Will you tell us about the progress of the construction of such infrastructure as housing and schools?
A: Along with the construction of 6,250 units at the Cheotmaeul Village, rental houses for government officials are under construction, while the private sector is now encouraged to build one-room houses and office structures so as to ensure the seamless supply of housing in the beginning stage. To this end, MACCA is holding meetings and contacting 10 contractors to pick up the speed of projects, so three or four contractors are expected to launch projects immediately.
Sejong City will have 26 schools by 2014 - six schools to be built at the Cheotmaeul Village and 20 others to be constructed at the exemplary living quarters.
Metropolitan traffic improvement steps are in place to help the city build traffic networks that can access each major city within two hours.

Q: Will you elaborate on the progress of the Cheotmaeul Village Project?
A: Despite the slumping real estate industry, 99.2 percent of the 1,582 units in the first phase project were sold last year, showing a competition rate of 2.4:1. The second phase project will supply 3,576 units.
The first phase project is progressing smoothly with the construction process now reaching 72 percent as planned. The construction is to be finished in October and moving in will likely begin in December.
Schools, complex community centers, commercial facilities and other public infrastructure will also be constructed before moving begins.

Q: What benefits will Sejong citizens will get from the construction of educational, cultural and other facilities?
A: The master plan for constructing Sejong City calls for the building of diverse facilities tailored to meet citizens' needs.
It calls for the construction of a total of 150 kindergarten, elementary and secondary schools across the city, including 26 schools to be established at the Cheotmaeul Village, and exemplary living quarters. A foreign high school and a science high school will be established in 2013 and 2014 along with the construction of a futuristic school offering ubiquitous schooling, ecological and other services.
MACCA plans to seek to lay a legal foundation for the establishment of foreign universities' local campuses and special purpose high schools which will recruit students from across the nation.
A national library, an art center, and a national museum each will be built in 2013, 2015 and 2016, creating a cultural cluster near the planned Central Park and offering top-class living conditions. The Central Park of 1.34 million square meters, a national arboretum of 650,000 square meters and the nation's biggest artificial lake, 1.08 times as big as the lake in Goyang, north of Seoul, will be built as a citizens' resting and leisure space to make 52 percent of the city area green space.

Q: Will you tell us about MACCA's roles and its tasks to be implemented during this year?
A: The construction of Sejong City, serving as a representative of the government, is not just the establishment of a new city, but part of the national task of ensuring balanced national development and creating new growth engines in the central region. MACCA is charged with building such hardware as infrastructure and government buildings as well as software functions for furthering its development.
We strive to make Sejong City an Asian hub of education/science and culture/art by offering administrative functions and attracting and establishing Korean and foreign prestigious universities and art institutions.
During this year, MACCA is devoting itself to not only build major facilities, but to also lay an institutional foundation through the revision of related laws as well as to make diverse efforts to ensure an integration of administration, science and culture.
We will also concentrate on the construction of government buildings, including the one that will house the Prime Minister's Office, to prepare for the three-stage relocation of government agencies to Sejong City starting in 2012. Traffic, communications and tap water/sewage systems and other infrastructure and amenities will be built in time for people to move into the Cheotmaeul Village in the second half. MACCA is putting its heart and soul into the construction of a structure that will house the Sejong City government, to be inaugurated in July 2012, as well as building systems offering local administration services. nw

Photos on Courtesy of the MACCA