Governor announces resumption of feasibility study at National Assembly audit
Residents face average 82-minute travel time to nearest airport, she says
Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae said it is "unacceptable" for Gyeonggi Province to have no airport of its own, signaling her intention to pursue an international airport for the province.
Choo made the remarks Monday at a National Assembly Land and Transport Committee national audit held at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government building in Suwon, responding to questions from Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Yeom Tae-young, who noted that while Gyeonggi accounts for 76 percent of domestic semiconductor industry sales, 98 percent of semiconductor exports are processed through Incheon International Airport.
Yeom also said that airports, as national infrastructure projects requiring more than a decade to build, must be planned before the need becomes urgent. "Gyeonggi Province, as a semiconductor-specialized local government, must not miss the right moment to prepare an international logistics airport for advanced industries," he said.
Choo pointed to poor access to Incheon International Airport as a core problem. "Our residents use the airport too, but the average travel time to get there is one hour and 22 minutes — far too long," she said. "Seoul residents get there in 40 minutes, Incheon residents in 38. We are preparing to inform our residents of this and build public consensus."
She added that after taking office she discovered that a feasibility study for a Gyeonggi international airport had been suspended. "There appeared to be a misunderstanding that it could raise conflict-of-interest concerns, but an investigation found no such issues — the results were credible — so I decided to resume the study," she said.
Gyeonggi Province had earlier selected three preliminary candidate sites for the airport — reclaimed land at Hwaseong Lake in Hwaseong, Seotanmyeon in Pyeongtaek and Mogamyeon in Icheon — and launched a research project in August last year to analyze the sites and develop surrounding area strategies. The study drew fairness concerns, however, after it emerged that the winning contractor was run by two former advisory committee members who had previously been involved in the airport development project. The province suspended the study after receiving an interim report.
An official from the Gyeonggi Province Audit Committee said the former advisory members had already been dismissed from their positions at the time of the bid, and that they had used only publicly available information — not internal data — when submitting their proposal. "Legal consultations, including advice from attorneys, concluded that no laws were violated," the official said.
jshan@heraldcorp.com
