DISPUTE SURROUNDING PROJECT IN SEJONG

[Anchor Lead]

The National Assembly passed a revision to the parliamentary law at its plenary session on Tuesday, providing momentum to the construction of a new parliamentary building in the Sejong administrative city. But there is a pressing question related to this project. It is about how to supply housing to employees of relocated parliamentary agencies, as special apartment provisions for public officials moving to Sejong city were abolished in May.

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Under the current plan, the National Assembly will open its Sejong City era by the second half of 2027 at the latest. There are nearly 3,000 officials working with parliamentary agencies to be relocated, including eleven standing committees, the special committee on budget and accounts and the National Assembly Secretariat. According to a study by the Korea Research Institute of Human Settlements, most of these officials have to move to Sejong city due to official duties so it is necessary to support them with housing. The National Agency for Administrative City Construction estimates that there will be sufficient housing to accommodate the moving officials, as 113,000 more apartments will be built by 2030.

[Soundbite] Pak Moo-ik(Nat’l Agency for Administrative City Construction) : "We are building houses with a goal to accommodate 500,000 people by 2030. We will make sure a sufficient number of houses will be supplied for newcomers."

After special housing provisions for civil servants moving to Sejong were abolished in May, the city’s government asked the central government to expand the supply of rental houses for such public officials. But no decision has been made yet. Shortly after the relocation, it is likely that long-distance commuter buses will be operated to transport National Assembly officials between Seoul and Sejong. A similar measure was taken when some of central government agencies began relocating to the administrative city in 2012.

[Soundbite] Kim Soo-hyun(Sejong City National Balanced Development Support Center) : "It is fair for the government and National Assembly to devise special measures supporting parliamentary employees if they have to move to Sejong for official duties."

It seems necessary to provide realistic housing support to public officials moving to Sejong, since it is not easy for them to find new quality homes in the city due to soaring housing prices.