[The Editors' Verdict] From Garbage to Semiconductors... The Challenges Facing Oh Sehoon, Kim Dongyeon, and Yoo Jeongbok

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon (left) and Gyeonggi Province Governor-elect Kim Dong-yeon are discussing current issues between Seoul and Gyeonggi Province in the mayor's office at Seoul City Hall on the morning of the 13th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Before taking office, Kim Dong-yeon, the governor-elect of Gyeonggi Province, met with Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul, and Yoo Jeong-bok, the mayor-elect of Incheon, to initiate a tripartite consultative body for the Seoul metropolitan area. The metropolitan area, including Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon, faces many metropolitan-wide challenges such as housing, transportation, environment, and safety. As Kim said, when it comes to serving the citizens and residents, party lines, camps, or ideologies are unnecessary. Kim is an economic expert who served as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and has held positions such as Director of the Office for Government Policy Coordination and President of Ajou University.

Mayor Oh and Mayor-elect Yoo are experienced mayors and have experience with the tripartite consultative body during their mayoral terms. Although the administration has shifted to the People Power Party, the Democratic Party remains the majority in the National Assembly. In the provincial councils, the Democratic Party's monopoly in both Gyeonggi and Seoul has been broken. Gyeonggi achieved a 5-5 balance, and Seoul's leadership shifted to the People Power Party. Both Kim and Mayor Oh are potential presidential candidates. However, they can serve their four-year terms to a considerable extent. The need for consultation is urgent, and there is both the necessity and sufficient time to demonstrate the capabilities of provincial and municipal administrations.

The spectrum of issues for the tripartite consultative body in the metropolitan area is broad and complex. To summarize in one sentence, at one extreme there is garbage, and at the other, semiconductors. The Seoul Metropolitan Landfill located in Seo-gu, Incheon, receives 12,000 tons of metropolitan area garbage daily. It fully accepts the waste generated in Seoul and Gyeonggi.

Yoo Jeong-bok, Mayor-elect of Incheon (left), and Kim Dong-yeon, Governor-elect of Gyeonggi Province, are shaking hands and smiling brightly during a meeting held on the afternoon of the 13th at the Incheon Mayor Transition Committee in G Tower, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Seoul has no landfill facilities. Gyeonggi's self-treatment capacity is minimal. The Ministry of Environment, along with Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province, reached a so-called 'four-party agreement' in 2015, which included goals such as zero direct landfill of household waste by 2025 and securing alternative landfill sites. However, there has been no significant progress since then. The current mayor of Incheon has stated that from 2025, Incheon will no longer accept waste generated in Seoul and Gyeonggi. It seems this policy will not change with Mayor-elect Yoo's inauguration. If the tripartite consultative body fails to reach an agreement and Incheon stops accepting waste, a metropolitan area garbage crisis will be inevitable.

The core of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration's semiconductor promotion policy is comprehensive support in finance, administration, and taxation for research and development and workforce training in the semiconductor industry, linked with the Semiconductor Special Act to be implemented in the second half of the year. Semiconductor factories are concentrated in the metropolitan area, including Hwaseong, Giheung, Pyeongtaek, Yongin, and Icheon. Cheongju and Asan are relatively non-metropolitan but are in Chungcheong Province adjacent to the metropolitan area. Among the seven universities with semiconductor contract departments, five are located in Seoul, and two are in other regions but are KAIST and POSTECH. For the 2023 academic year, the freshman quota for semiconductor-related departments is 1,382 students, with the metropolitan area (744 students) exceeding the provinces (638 students).

From the perspective of each metropolitan city and province, this is very welcome considering regional industrial development, talent cultivation, and the resulting direct and indirect economic effects. On the other hand, voices expressing concern about the concentration in the metropolitan area are emerging from the provinces. The crisis of provincial manufacturing and universities is not a new issue, and there is worry that semiconductor policies will lead to industrial concentration in the metropolitan area and the overgrowth of metropolitan universities.

Kyung-ho Lee, Head of Social Affairs Division

Kang Ki-jung, the mayor-elect of Gwangju, proposed a semiconductor alliance as a way to develop the existing cooperation meeting of Yeongnam and Honam provincial governors into a more concrete collaboration among eight local governments: Gwangju, Jeonnam, Jeonbuk, Daegu, Gyeongbuk, Busan, Ulsan, and Gyeongnam. This is a point where conflict between the metropolitan area and provinces over semiconductors is anticipated. It is hoped that the tripartite consultative body of the metropolitan area will discuss not only common metropolitan issues but also the roles the metropolitan area should play for national balanced development and come up with solutions.

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