Governor Lee Cheol-woo "Over 440,000 km in more than eleven rounds of intense travel, confirming the site for the integrated new airport as the greatest achievement of the 7th local government term"

Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk Province.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Ju Cheol-in] Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk Province, cited the ‘confirmation of the relocation site for the Daegu-Gyeongbuk integrated new airport’ as the greatest achievement of the past three years.

At a press conference on the 28th, Governor Lee announced the achievements of provincial administration over the past three years and the key directions for future promotion.

Governor Lee explained five major achievements, saying, “To realize a new wind of happiness in Gyeongbuk, I have marched over 440,000 km, equivalent to more than eleven laps around the Earth, and achieved considerable results.”

The greatest achievement was selected as ‘pioneering the sky route.’ Governor Lee stated, “The confirmation of the new airport was accomplished six years after Daegu City submitted a request to the Ministry of National Defense in 2014 to relocate the K-2 Air Force Base. It is highly significant as it laid the foundation for the region’s revival, which was facing extinction, and opened the sky route to compete globally.”

He added, “The new airport, with an investment of 10 trillion won solely for construction, is more than just a single piece of social overhead capital (SOC); it is a mega project that will change the growth map of the region across all sectors including industry, tourism, transportation, and logistics.”

‘Gyeongbuk-style quarantine’ contributing to the reorganization of the national quarantine system and ‘changes and innovations in provincial administration’ were also cited as major achievements.

Governor Lee explained, “The COVID-19 pandemic was undoubtedly a crisis, but it is being evaluated that we have overcome it well with Gyeongbuk’s unique spirit. In particular, the Gyeongbuk-style social distancing easing, implemented nationwide for the first time last April, caught both rabbits of quarantine and economy, contributing to the reorganization of the national quarantine system.”

He continued, “We mobilized all means to create a creative and open organization by boldly breaking existing customs such as barefoot walking, special lectures on chemical engineering, casual days, cooking contests, and the installation of the Imagination Maru. Through these efforts, we earned the honor of being ranked first nationwide for two consecutive years in the government joint evaluation.”

Other major achievements included the ‘establishment of a new growth platform for Gyeongbuk’ through the selection of national projects such as the large-scale remodeling of industrial complexes with a project cost exceeding 1 trillion won and smart industrial complexes, as well as ‘practical diplomacy and expansion of ultra-wide-area governance’ such as discussions on administrative integration between Daegu and Gyeongbuk.

Governor Lee also presented the future direction of provincial administration as ‘leaping into a global mega city competing beyond Korea to the world.’

As ten related keywords, he suggested the era of two ports with airports and harbors, leading the 4th Industrial Revolution era through research-centered innovation, overcoming the crisis of local extinction with the Gyeongbuk model, leading changes in tourism trends in the new normal era, leading the East Sea era, and the era of one-day living area between Daegu and Gyeongbuk.

Governor Lee said, “The remaining one year will be a more critical time than ever,” and added, “We will concretize the ten future core keywords by sector at an early stage.”

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