Naju City Launches 'Attraction Promotion Team' for Additional Relocation of Public Institutions

[Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yuk-bong] Naju City, Jeollanam-do, has rolled up its sleeves to proactively respond to the additional relocation of public institutions, a major issue in national balanced development, known as ‘Innovation City Season 2.’

The city announced on the 14th that it held a kick-off meeting to launch an internal attraction task force led by Deputy Mayor Kang Young-gu in response to the government’s plan for additional relocation of public institutions, expected to materialize from next year.

Following remarks by Woo Dong-gi, Chairman of the National Balanced Development Committee, who publicly stated last month that ‘the second relocation of public institutions will become visible from the end of next year,’ the task force selected 33 public institutions as priority targets for attraction, considering the relevance to the 16 public institutions already relocated to the existing Innovation City and the regional ripple effects.

The task force consists of 17 members organized into two divisions?overall management led by the deputy mayor and practical promotion?and four teams.

The four teams are ‘Planning & Public Relations,’ ‘Attraction & Support,’ ‘Improvement of Residential Conditions,’ and ‘Site Acquisition,’ and they plan to pursue proactive attraction strategies by closely monitoring the National Balanced Development Committee’s trends on additional relocation plans for public institutions.

The Planning & Public Relations team will start by forming an advisory group including external experts and focus on ‘holding policy forums inviting members of the National Assembly and experts,’ ‘systematic media promotion to induce nationwide interest,’ and ‘establishing an organic cooperation system with central government ministries and public institutions.’

The Attraction & Support team will develop plans for ‘customized job projects for families of public institution employees relocating together,’ ‘support for children’s education,’ ‘interest support for housing loans for employees,’ and ‘tax reductions for relocated public institutions.’

The Improvement of Residential Conditions team will focus on resolving the three major issues of Innovation City: ‘odor,’ ‘SRF combined heat and power plant,’ and ‘vacancy rates of commercial buildings.’

Finally, the Site Acquisition team will explore ways to secure additional relocation sites by ‘digitizing available city-owned land data,’ ‘discovering idle spaces such as unoccupied buildings and closed schools in Innovation City,’ and ‘utilizing linked sites such as Bitgaram Energy Cluster Investment Leading District and the National Energy Industrial Complex.’

The task force will hold regular monthly meetings to check progress in each field and share government policy trends.

Deputy Mayor Kang Young-gu said, “With recent remarks by the Chairman of the National Balanced Development Committee drawing attention to the additional relocation of public institutions, more proactive preparation is necessary. We will do our best to develop attraction logic that leverages Naju’s unique strengths, such as strengthening the industry-academia-research cluster, considering the relevance and ripple effects of the 16 public institutions in Innovation City.”

Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yuk-bong baekok@asiae.co.kr

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