 the Hansun Foundation for Freedom & Happiness |
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Experts said Wednesday that no nation has ever achieved an advanced economy under the banner of balanced regional growth.
Researchers at the Hansun Foundation for Freedom & Happiness, a Seoul-based conservative think tank, stressed that balanced growth was a political slogan impossible to achieve in the real world, referring to the plan to relocate nine ministries and four government agencies outside Seoul.
Park Se-il, chairman of the institute who called the relocation project a populist idea, stepped down in the middle of his tenure as a lawmaker in 2005 after the plan was approved in the National Assembly. He is also a Seoul National University professor.
During a symposium in Seoul hosted by the institute, experts called on the government to learn six core lessons from experiences of 10 major economies, including the United States, Japan and the Netherlands.
"England, France, Japan and several other governments, all pay attention to ways to revitalize their capitals and suburban areas. The slogan of balanced growth sounds possible in theory but is impossible in reality," said professor Jung Jae-young of Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul.
Jung further said all countries that had ever tried the strategy in the past found their efforts were in vain, noting the government should let the market economy work.
The remarks came at a time when the nation is divided over the Sejong City project aimed at achieving balanced regional development.
During a National Assembly confirmation hearing that ended Tuesday, Prime Minister-nominee Chung Un-chan vowed to rethink the approved local development plan. About 5 trillion of 22.5 trillion won has already been spent to make it happen.
Chung called the Sejong City project inefficient.
The nominee's diehard position on the relocation plan drew the ire of opposition lawmakers. They urged Chung to withdraw his nomination.
In a signal of their opposition to the relocation plan, Hansun experts said one of the core lessons from the demise of communist economies was that government intervention in the private sector ends up a failure.
The think tank also called for energetic presidential leadership as a core element that can help Korea become an advanced economy in the future.
"Competitiveness of the economy is not a given. It is something that political leaders should fight for with effective national strategies," said the Hansun report, which summarized its experts' ideas and proposals.
It proposed that President Lee Myung-bak keep seeking small government, decentralization, flexible labor market policies and the wise use of think tanks in charting national strategies to prepare for the coming decade.
♤ 이 글은 2009년 9월 23일자 THE KOREA TIMES에 실린 글 입니다.
