Gyeongnam Governor Park Wansu: "Will Hold Responsible for Reviewing the Robot Land Promotion Process"

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Seryeong] “Large-scale projects like Robot Land, if not properly managed, can become obstacles and burdens to provincial administration, so we will thoroughly examine the promotion process and hold those responsible accountable.”

Park Wansu, Governor of Gyeongnam Province, expressed his determination to clarify responsibility by referring to the appellate court results with the Robot Land side at the department and bureau heads meeting held on the 16th.

Park Wan-su, Governor of Gyeongnam Province, is speaking about the Robot Land project at the meeting of department and bureau heads.
[Photo by Gyeongnam Provincial Government]

Governor Park evaluated the Robot Land project by stating, “Supervision over the work procedures and processes of the Robot Land Foundation and other invested and contributed institutions was not properly conducted.”

Regarding the second trial ruling on Robot Land, he pointed out, “Many unfavorable clauses were added, such as reasons for termination and the method of calculating payments upon termination, due to initial agreement changes, and there was inadequate response to the demand for relocation of the pension site.”

Governor Park emphasized, “We must review all administrative processing methods, including digitization and preservation of work content, and improve any flawed procedures or systems to ensure that work is conducted transparently.”

According to the province, earlier Robot Land Corporation notified the administration of termination of the implementation agreement, claiming “We must sell the pension site to repay a loan of 5 billion KRW, but the foundation did not transfer the site, causing a default situation,” and filed a lawsuit in February 2020 demanding payments upon termination.

The first trial court ruled in October 2021 that Gyeongnam Province must pay 112.6 billion KRW, including payments upon termination and operating expenses, to the private business operator, and on the 12th of this month, the appellate court also ruled in favor of the private business operator.

After the appellate court ruling, Gyeongnam Province comprehensively reviewed the likelihood of winning an appeal and the burden of interest costs, concluding that there was almost no practical benefit in further appeal, and decided to focus on normalizing the Robot Land project.

The total amount of 166.2 billion KRW, including private business investment and operating expenses according to the ruling, was deposited at Changwon District Court on the 13th.

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