Incheon Ongjin-gun Begins Establishing Detailed Roadmap for 'West Sea 5 Islands Comprehensive Development Plan'

5-Year Extension with Total Project Cost of 750 Billion Won by 2025
Increased National Funding for Hospital Ship Construction and Old Housing Renovation
Ongjin-gun Focuses on Resident Hope Projects and Feasible Initiatives

Fishermen from Yeonpyeongdo are removing crabs from the nets.
[Photo by Ongjin-gun, Incheon]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Ongjin-gun, Incheon is accelerating the establishment of a detailed roadmap, including schedules for each project, to enhance the completeness of the extended comprehensive development plan for the West Sea 5 Islands through 2025.

Ongjin-gun announced on the 27th that it has set three major strategies for the West Sea 5 Islands comprehensive development plan: improvement of residential conditions, safety and convenience, and resident-experienced projects. The plan prioritizes projects desired by residents, focusing on nationally funded projects and feasible projects to create detailed plans.

First, the residential living support fund system, which provides 50,000 to 100,000 KRW monthly to residents of the West Sea 5 Islands, and the old house improvement project that repairs dilapidated houses will continue to be promoted.

Additionally, a new 200-ton hospital ship will be built and deployed to the West Sea 5 Islands, where medical facilities are poor. Projects such as the construction of a new Daecheongdo Complex Community Center, afforestation projects to create resting spaces, and the creation of a resting area at Yonggipo Port on Baengnyeongdo will be promoted to improve residential conditions.

For residents' convenience, public sewage construction, expansion of incineration facilities, installation of a living resource recovery center, and food waste treatment facilities will be expanded. Large-scale SOC projects such as the opening of the Baengnyeongdo coastal road, development of Yonggipo New Port, and development of Dabdong Port on Socheongdo and Jangchon Port on Baengnyeongdo will also be promoted.

Along with this, to promote healthy sports activities for residents, outdated sports facilities will be improved, various tourism programs will be operated through tourism manpower training, and visiting cultural and artistic performances will be held to implement resident- and tourist-satisfying experiential policies.

Jang Jeongmin, mayor of Ongjin-gun, said, "Since the revised West Sea 5 Islands comprehensive development plan will be implemented from next year, we will actively promote the changed project details to residents." He added, "Furthermore, we plan to inform residents about the progress of projects such as the construction of Baengnyeong Airport and Yeonpyeongdo Port, and the improvement of the West Sea 5 Islands communication network quality, which were proposed to the West Sea 5 Islands Support Committee."

The West Sea 5 Islands comprehensive development plan was prepared to support residents of the northernmost West Sea 5 Islands?Baengnyeongdo, Yeonpyeongdo, Soyeonpyeongdo, Daecheongdo, and Socheongdo?following North Korea's Yeonpyeongdo shelling provocation in 2010.

Originally, from 2011 to this year, a total of 910.9 billion KRW (including private capital) was to be invested over 10 years to promote 78 projects such as residential environment improvement. However, the budget execution rate has remained at about 40% until this year, and private investment projects like the international tourism resort development have not even started due to feasibility issues.

Accordingly, recently, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Office for Government Policy Coordination extended the West Sea 5 Islands comprehensive development plan by 5 years, reducing the total project cost to about 750 billion KRW by 2025, while deciding to provide more national funding for effective projects such as hospital ship construction, coastal road opening, and old house improvement.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.