Moon Jun-hee, Hapcheon County Governor, Focuses All Administrative Efforts to Overcome County Extinction Crisis

Jincheon-Hapcheon Expressway Route Map [Image Source=Hapcheon-gun]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] Moon Jun-hee, the mayor of Hapcheon County, is concentrating all administrative efforts to overcome the extinction of Hapcheon County.

On the 24th, Mayor Moon Jun-hee revealed the key administrative projects focused on overcoming the county's extinction along with the major achievements of the 7th local government administration.

Since the launch of the 7th local government administration, major achievements include receiving an A grade for the nationwide basic local government heads' pledge fulfillment evaluation in 2020 and winning the Grand Prize at the 25th Korea Local Autonomy Management Awards.

Especially in the budget sector, the 2020 supplementary budget settlement reached 700 billion KRW for the first time ever, the initial budget in 2021 reached 600 billion KRW for the first time, and the 2022 local allocation tax was 329.3 billion KRW, an increase of 66.7 billion KRW from this year, signaling a green light for solving local issues.

Hapcheon was selected as the best county in the 2020 Urban-to-Rural Attraction Support Project, the best county in the Hope 2020 Neighborly Love, received the 2021 Korea Creative Management Award (National Safety Service App), the 2021 Korea Spatial Culture Award (Presidential Award), and was recognized as an excellent institution for local regulatory innovation in 2021 (Presidential Commendation), among various awards from higher and external organizations, acknowledging the county administration's achievements.

Securing 109.1 billion KRW through being selected for the nation's first comprehensive flood damage maintenance project for three consecutive years, securing the largest national budget in the sewage sector with 52.3 billion KRW, securing 47.7 billion KRW through rural agreement public project selection, securing 10 billion KRW by designating Dumusan Recreation Forest, securing 32.7 billion KRW for the Smart Livestock ICT Pilot Complex Project, selection in pediatric and obstetrics public projects, and re-designation of obstetrics departments are among the significant achievements in various public project selections and national and local government funding acquisition.

Mayor Moon Jun-hee is focusing on the following projects to overcome Hapcheon County's extinction: ▲ Establishing a comprehensive wide-area transportation network ▲ Construction of the Clean Hapcheon New Town Project ▲ Creation of the Hapcheon Clean Energy Convergence Power Complex Project ▲ Promotion of large-scale private investment projects.

◆ Establishing a Comprehensive Wide-Area Transportation Network

Long-awaited by residents, the southern inland railway Hapcheon Station was secured, the preliminary feasibility study for the National Road No. 24 (Hapcheon Jeokjung to Changnyeong Yueo) alignment improvement project passed, the east-west Ulsan to Hamyang expressway construction and the north-south Chungbuk Jincheon to Hapcheon expressway were included in the 2nd National Road Network Comprehensive Plan, and the Dalbit Inland Railway was finally included in the 4th National Railway Network Construction Plan (Gwangju to Daegu), expanding the comprehensive transportation network and expecting significant growth in Hapcheon through investment attraction.

◆ Construction of the Clean Hapcheon New Town Project

The Clean Hapcheon New Town Project is a core pledge project of the 7th local government administration, planning to invest about 1.37 trillion KRW in the Imbuk and Munrim-ri areas to build industrial complexes, international complex zones, logistics complexes, and residential areas. Recently, the project gained momentum by attracting the ‘Hapcheon Medical Valley Industrial Complex’ worth 300 billion KRW in the new town area. As a core project essential for Hapcheon County's future, it is being pursued systematically and persistently.

Hapcheon Clean Convergence Development Complex (Bird's-eye view) [Image source=Hapcheon-gun]

◆ Hapcheon Clean Energy Convergence Power Complex Project

Investing 1.5 trillion KRW in the Ssangbaek-myeon and Samga-myeon areas, the project is promoting the creation of a power complex with a total clean energy production capacity of 668 MW, including 500 MW of natural gas, 88 MW of solar power, and 80 MW of hydrogen fuel cells.

Last December, it was included in the 9th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand, and the LNG power generation project gained momentum with the completion of the KDI preliminary feasibility study in October this year.

This is an urgent project to overcome the extinction crisis facing Hapcheon, and it will be promoted with a focus on minimizing harm to residents near the power plant by applying the latest reduction facilities.

Banari Resort Bird's-eye View [Image Source=Hapcheon-gun]

◆ Promotion of Large-Scale Private Investment Projects

The Hapcheon Film Theme Park Hotel is planned to be built with 40 billion KRW of private capital, consisting of 5 floors and 200 rooms, and on November 1st, a business agreement was signed with Hotel Lotte to operate the Film Theme Park Hotel.

A nearby Hapcheon hotel is also planned to be built with 53.7 billion KRW of private capital, consisting of a tower-type building with 8 floors above ground and 1 basement floor with 242 rooms, and a villa-type building with 2 floors above ground and 8 rooms, including banquet halls, swimming pools, and restaurants as auxiliary facilities.

Through hotel operations, it is expected to greatly contribute to local economic revitalization by attracting tourists who stay, creating about 500 jobs, operating shuttle buses for employees and tourist buses, and supplying local agricultural products as food ingredients.

The ‘Clickvill Media Studio Theme Park Resort (Clickvill S·P·R) Project’ is being developed in Yongju-myeon on a scale of 538,153㎡ with 796 billion KRW of private investment and is scheduled for completion in 2026.

It is a four-season complex theme park resort consisting of four studio zones, including three media studios and Mountain Cove. In December last year, the county and the theme park developers signed a business agreement and are currently promoting the project.

The ‘Hapcheon Yellow River Town Development Project’ is a private investment project to develop a residential complex, agricultural complex, leisure facilities, and tourist facilities on a 496,000㎡ scale in Seongsan-ri, Yongju-myeon. In November this year, the county and Gwell F&I signed a business agreement and are accelerating efforts to achieve concrete results in 2022.

The ‘Bana Resort Development Project’ is investing 200 billion KRW of private capital in Daejeon-ri, Gaya-myeon, on a 1.54 million㎡ site to build a 27-hole golf course and hotel-condo complex.

The project site was where a hot spring development project was attempted 20 years ago but failed, so local residents have high expectations. In September this year, the county and Bana signed a business agreement and are promoting the project.

The ‘Hapcheon Tourism Platform Development Project’ is a project to create a 3 km high sky tower and complex experience space connecting the Yongju-myeon Gaho-ri Film Theme Park and auxiliary dam tourist site with the summit area near Akgyeonsan in Seong-ri, Daebyeong-myeon.

It is being prepared with the goal of opening in October 2024, with 70 billion KRW of private investment. In September this year, the county and Fantazmo signed a business agreement and are promoting the project.

Mayor Moon Jun-hee said, “To overcome the county extinction crisis, we are actively stepping forward to attract various policies and private investments,” and added, “We are working tirelessly across all aspects of county administration, including education, welfare, agriculture, and economy, to create a Hapcheon where all residents are happy.”

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