“Government needs 84 trillion won over 10 years for mega project power and water infrastructure”

The Democratic Party of Korea announced on the 13th that the government estimated that about 84 trillion won will be needed over the next 10 years to expand power and water infrastructure to promote mega projects.

The Democratic Party's Mega Growth Special Committee announced that it had received a report from the government on this matter at the 'Mega Growth Special Committee Budget Meeting' held at the National Assembly on this day.

Rep. Jang Cheol-min, secretary of the special committee, said, “Among the mega project-related budgets, the biggest investment, not only next year but also in the long term, is the electric power sector.” He added, “As expected, about 80 trillion won will be needed over the next 10 years, and I understand that government support of about 50 trillion won will be needed.”

According to the plan reported by the government, it is expected that a total of about 84 trillion won will be spent on expanding the national high-tech industry power and water infrastructure by 2036, of which about 58 trillion won from the national treasury will be invested.

Specifically, it was estimated that 79 trillion won would be spent on expanding power infrastructure and 5 trillion won on expanding water infrastructure.

In next year's budget, about 2 trillion won is reflected in the expansion of power and water infrastructure, including 1.5 trillion won for electricity and 370 billion won for water.

Rep. Jang also said, “The Ministry of Climate Change has a plan to shorten the project period and resolve uncertain power issues in each region by using a demand-attracting substation method, so there were regional opinions on this.”

At the meeting on this day, the party and government inspected the budgets for major mega projects such as physical artificial intelligence (AI) and AI data center (AIDC) centered on six ministries, including the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, and the Ministry of National Defense.

However, issues related to the Mega Special Zone Act (Ultra-Metropolitan Special Zone Act), such as special provisions for application of exceptions to the 52-hour workweek, which the labor community is protesting against, were not discussed on this day.

Rep. Jang said, “We will discuss various issues related to the Ultra-Metropolitan Special Zone Act separately by holding a general meeting of policymakers at the party level, including the policy committee.”