"Nationwide industrial redistribution should not become a tool of political strife"

Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo. [Yonhap]
Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo. [Yonhap]

By Yang Geun-hyuk, The Herald Business

Former Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo said Sunday he does not oppose locating a semiconductor complex in the Honam region, provided the site conditions are suitable.

In a Facebook post that day, Hong said that since the era of President Park Chung-hee, the Yeongnam region had developed into a major industrial belt — with heavy industry centered on Changwon, an automotive, shipbuilding and petrochemical hub around Ulsan, and Busan rising as a logistics city on the strength of export-driven industry. "Only Daegu has been left behind, ranking last in gross regional domestic product for 30 years as its textile industry declined," he wrote.

Hong said that from the 1980s onward, the semiconductor and electronics industries took root in Gyeonggi Province and the Chungcheong provinces, while the Honam region was left without a comparable industrial base. "In particular, Honam alone has remained an agriculture-centered region with no distinct industry," he wrote. "I do not oppose a semiconductor complex going to Honam if the location conditions are met."

He said the move would be necessary not as a political maneuver but for balanced national development. He also expressed frustration over the slow progress at Saemangeum, calling it "a vast and optimal site from which our country could leap forward again," and lamenting that it had remained underdeveloped for decades.

He added that it would not be desirable for nationwide industrial redistribution to become a tool of political strife.


yg@heraldcorp.com