'Commuter bus suspension unavoidable; living conditions must improve'

Hong Ji-sun, nominee for minister of land, infrastructure and transport [Yonhap]
Hong Ji-sun, nominee for minister of land, infrastructure and transport [Yonhap]

Hong Ji-sun, nominee for minister of land, infrastructure and transport, said the success of the second round of public agency relocations to regional areas should be measured not by the scale of the moves but by their tangible impact on local economies.

In written responses submitted Monday to the National Assembly's land and transport committee ahead of her confirmation hearing, Hong said evaluating the relocations solely on "quantitative indicators such as the number of agencies moved or the number of personnel transferred has fundamental limitations." She added that assessments must also capture real-world outcomes — local talent hiring, job creation, business attraction and investment, linkages with regional industries, and growth in the resident population.

On the first round of relocations, Hong said the process had laid new foundations for regional growth, including expanded hiring of local talent, industry-academia-research cooperation and increases in the resident population.

However, she acknowledged that "relocating public agencies alone had limitations in fundamentally easing the concentration trend toward the greater Seoul area," citing insufficient links between relocated agencies and local industries as well as shortfalls in living conditions such as transportation, education and healthcare.

For the second round, Hong said she would focus not merely on dispersing agencies but on fostering industry-academia ties and nurturing regional growth hubs.

On the question of suspending metropolitan-area commuter bus services for agencies that have already relocated, Hong said the suspension was "unavoidable given the purpose of the regional relocation," but stressed that transportation, education, healthcare and cultural amenities must be improved to help employees and their families settle in their new locations.

On the costs of the second relocation round, Hong said that if confirmed she would "pursue the process in a direction that minimizes the use of national funds by making maximum use of existing infrastructure built in innovation cities and reviewing various relocation methods, including the use of shared government buildings."

On the polarization of the housing market, Hong attributed the simultaneous problem of price instability in the greater Seoul area and a buildup of unsold units in regional markets primarily to the concentration of housing demand in the metropolitan area. She said differentiated housing policies for the two regions would be needed to address the imbalance.

For regional markets, she said short-term measures to ease the unsold-unit backlog — including direct purchases, tax incentives, guaranteed buyback programs and corporate restructuring real estate investment trusts — should be pursued continuously alongside longer-term structural solutions such as the second public agency relocation, completion of the administrative capital, the five-hub three-special-zone policy and three major megaprojects.


hss@heraldcorp.com