[Yoon Suk-yeol Impeachment] Concerns Over Delays in Gwangju and Jeonnam Projects... Attention on State-funded Initiatives

Yoon's Pledges Such as AI and New Medical School Face Major Setbacks
All-Out Efforts to Identify and Adopt Early Presidential Election Pledges

Gwangju City Hall building exterior.

Gwangju City and South Jeolla Province are closely monitoring the potential impact on national projects following the Constitutional Court's ruling to dismiss former President Yoon Suk-yeol on the 4th.

Most of the major projects have effectively come to a halt as the impeachment proceedings have unfolded, and there are growing concerns that the decision will cause disruptions to projects due to a governmental vacuum.

The city and province plan to secure national funding by ensuring their key project budgets are included in the government's supplementary budget proposal, and to focus their efforts on identifying and adopting pledges in preparation for an early presidential election.

According to city and provincial officials, former President Yoon's pledges related to the Gwangju region include 15 policy tasks and 41 projects. These include establishing a leading artificial intelligence (AI) city, becoming a future mobility hub, constructing the Gwangju-Daegu Dalbit High-Speed Railway, relocating the military airport, and attracting a large-scale shopping complex.

For the AI leading city initiative, the project to create the AI Proof Valley (AI Phase 2), which Gwangju had already secured, is adrift due to a lack of funding. The Dalbit Railway construction project has also seen no progress since a request for exemption from the preliminary feasibility study was submitted to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The construction of Subway Line 2 is also inevitably facing setbacks as the necessary national funding for this year has not been secured.

The city plans to work to ensure that key budget items such as AI Phase 2, the establishment of the AI Gifted High School, and Subway Line 2 are included in the government's supplementary budget. With the early presidential election becoming a reality, there are also plans to identify new region-related pledges.

Jeonnam Provincial Office building exterior.

Former President Yoon's pledges related to South Jeolla Province include 15 policy tasks and 30 detailed projects. More than 23 trillion won is needed to implement all the pledges, but only 327.4 billion won has been secured so far.

The most urgent issue is the establishment of a new national medical school. In order for the integrated medical school to launch next year, the student quota must be allocated by the end of this month. However, the government has decided to freeze next year's medical school quota on the condition that medical students return, leaving the situation uncertain. Moreover, with former President Yoon, who had promised the establishment of the new medical school, now dismissed, the project is at risk of being scrapped. The province plans to continue pushing for the establishment of the medical school by explaining the region's unique situation?having neither a medical school nor a university hospital?to relevant agencies.

A provincial official stated, "Establishing a medical school is absolutely necessary to improve the poor state of essential medical services in the region," and added, "Although the government's control tower has effectively disappeared, we will continue to work so that the project can proceed at the government level."

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