New Residential Site Discovery Fully Managed by Ministry of Land... Expanded Public Participation in Railway Network Planning

Ministry of Land Announces Innovative Measures to Eradicate Speculation
Aiming to Prevent Recurrence of LH Land Speculation Scandal
Management of New Housing Site Surveyor Lists
Expansion of Asset Registration Obligations to All Departments
Listening to Public Opinions in National Planning

From now on, the task of discovering new housing sites for housing supply will be directly carried out by a dedicated department of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT). All participants in the site investigation will be registered and managed in a roster, and a constant surveillance team for information leakage will be operated to prevent speculation using prior information.

The obligation to register real estate-related assets will be expanded to all departments within MOLIT. Additionally, a public communication channel will be operated to better reflect citizens' voices when establishing national plans such as railway networks and road plans.

On the 18th, MOLIT announced that it has prepared an innovation plan containing these measures to prevent incidents like the land speculation scandal involving employees of Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) from recurring.

This innovation plan was prepared to fundamentally block real estate speculation and establish a communication system that listens to the public’s voice during the formulation of national plans and policies.

First, MOLIT will build and operate a strong control system to block real estate speculation.

To prevent violations of the Public Officials Ethics Act, such as unlawfully increasing assets by using information obtained during official duties, the acquisition of real estate for purposes other than living in areas related to work, such as new towns, road, and railway projects, will be fundamentally restricted.

Also, the scope of the obligation to register real estate-related assets will be significantly strengthened and applied to all departments within MOLIT.

All processes of discovering and selecting new housing sites will be directly carried out by a dedicated department of MOLIT, and a 'site investigation security measure' will be established to fundamentally block information leakage.

The site investigation security measure includes a detailed manual requiring all site investigators to pre-register on a roster and manage the security of data viewing and activity details. A constant surveillance team for information leakage and management status will be operated, and stakeholders in planned development areas will be excluded from related work.

For land within planned development districts, transaction trends and comprehensive analyses will be conducted, and a dedicated center will be operated where suspected cases of improper acquisition of internal information can be directly reported, establishing a thorough internal monitoring system.

In particular, when suspicions of real estate speculation are detected, an immediate request for investigation will be made, and the strictest disciplinary actions will be taken, utilizing all means permitted by law and regulations to impose severe punishment.

In front of a building in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, members of the Gimpo Geomdan Transportation Citizens' Coalition are protesting to change the planned 'GTX-D' route connecting Gimpo and Bucheon to directly connect to Seoul and to urge the connection of Gimpo to Seoul Subway Line 5.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Along with this, to promote policies that the public can trust and empathize with, a system to listen to citizens' voices will be introduced in the establishment of national plans such as railway networks and road plans, as well as in the policy implementation process.

Also, to collect diverse voices from the public and activate public participation in the policy-making process, the 'National Policy Participation Group' will be expanded and operated.

A public opinion suggestion window will be opened using the website, and an administrative information service based on chatbot-artificial intelligence (AI) will be introduced to diversify communication channels and make communication more convenient.

MOLIT plans to regularly check and manage the progress of implementation to ensure that this innovation plan is applied across all policies in the land and transport sector and is carried out smoothly in the field.

Other public institutions under MOLIT will also be supported, centered on the 'MOLIT-Public Institution Innovation Task Force,' to establish and promote innovation plans suited to the characteristics of each institution.

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