City Councilor Jang Jaesung: "Low Participation Rate of Local Companies in Urban Railway Line 2 Construction"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Concerns have been raised about the low participation rate of local companies in the Phase 1 construction of Gwangju Urban Railway Line 2.

Jang Jae-seong, a member of the Gwangju Metropolitan Council (Democratic Party, Seo-gu 1), pointed out on the 9th during the administrative audit of the Urban Railway Construction Headquarters that the participation rate of local companies in contracts worth over 500 million KRW in the Phase 1 construction of Urban Railway Line 2 is excessively low.

According to the participation status of local companies in contracts (over 500 million KRW) issued by the Urban Railway Construction Headquarters, the total contract amount for six sections of Phase 1 of Urban Railway Line 2 and the vehicle depot construction is 487.9 billion KRW, with local companies accounting for 140.2 billion KRW (28.7%) and non-local companies 347.7 billion KRW (71.3%).

Councilman Jang Jae-seong criticized, “The Urban Railway Construction Headquarters is not adhering to the local construction company participation rate mentioned in Article 9, Paragraph 2, Item 1 of the 'Ordinance to Promote the Revitalization of the Construction Industry in Gwangju Metropolitan City,' and is acting contrary to the administration’s efforts to encourage local company participation.”

Furthermore, an examination of the subcontracting participation of local companies by the Urban Railway Construction Headquarters revealed that subcontracting construction works in Section 1, Section 2, and Section 6 are not complying with the subcontracting local company participation rate stipulated in Article 9, Paragraph 2, Item 2 of the same ordinance.

In response, a Gwangju city official explained, “As of the end of October 2020, the participation rate of local companies in subcontracting and service contracts reached 69%, and the local employment rate was 83%. However, in the case of mandatory local joint contracts, according to the 'Standards for Local Government Bidding and Contract Execution' and the 'Ordinance to Promote the Revitalization of the Construction Industry in Gwangju Metropolitan City,' local companies can participate in construction up to a maximum of 40-49%. Due to the limited number of local companies meeting the construction capability evaluation amount, the portion of contracts issued as mandatory local joint contracts is inevitably limited to 28.7%,” the official clarified.

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