Jeonnam Province Urges Formation of New Central Government-Level Consultative Body for Naju SRF

[Muan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province announced a statement urging the formation of a ‘new central government-level consultative body’ proposed by four organizations as the Naju SRF public-private cooperation governance ended.

On the 14th, Jeonnam Province stated in the statement, “We urge the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to make active efforts,” and “In particular, the operation of the SRF power plant without residents’ consent must not be allowed.”

It also said, “The failure of the five parties to reach an agreement despite two years of efforts while operating the governance was caused by the excessive loss compensation scope of Korea District Heating Corporation (KDHC),” and requested, “KDHC should actively communicate with residents and work on discovering alternative projects and solving problems.”

Currently, the Naju SRF issue is sharply divided between KDHC, which intends to operate the SRF power plant through a business commencement report after the governance ended, and Naju City, which is trying to block the operation by exercising its permit authority.

Along with this, citizens of Naju Innovation City are conducting relay civil complaints and vehicle protests to stop the SRF operation, making it difficult for KDHC to operate the plant. KDHC has expressed the position that it has no choice but to proceed with litigation to avoid breach of trust due to the non-operation of the power plant.

Accordingly, Jeonnam Province judged that a consultative body must be promptly established to resolve the current situation, which only increases distrust as conflicts among the parties deepen, and urged the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to form the consultative body.

Since January last year, the public-private cooperation governance committee, consisting of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Jeonnam Province, Naju City, KDHC, and the Naju Citizens’ Committee Against Waste Fuel Use, has ended its activities as of the 30th of last month without narrowing differences among institutions regarding loss compensation.

A Jeonnam Province official said, “We hope that a solution for loss compensation and other issues will be prepared in the newly formed central government-led consultative body to resolve the Naju SRF issue,” and added, “We also hope that citizens of Naju Innovation City will elect citizen representatives necessary for gathering residents’ opinions and dialogue channels.”

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