Goyang City, "Construction Research Institute is the support of northern Gyeonggi Province... please exclude relocation to the local area."

Ahead of the government's announcement of the government's second target for relocating public institutions to the region, Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province, expressed its request to consider the local situation so that the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (hereinafter referred to as the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology) can remain in the region and grow together with northern Gyeonggi Province.

The city sympathized with the purpose of the government policy of balanced national development, but explained that if the only government-funded research institute in the field of science and technology in northern Gyeonggi Province, where development has been slow due to various regulations for decades, leaves, the difficulties that Goyang City and northern Gyeonggi Province must endure will inevitably increase.

In January of this year, then-Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yun-deok formalized the second relocation of public institutions to regional areas, and the government announced the direction and principles for relocation in September.

On the 23rd of last month, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Hong Ji-seon announced that the institutions and regions subject to relocation would be announced in November during a government audit.

As the announcement approaches, the future of the Korea Construction Research Institute, which has been with the region for nearly 30 years, has emerged as a topic of great interest to Goyang citizens.

A city official said, "Balanced national development is a task that everyone must solve together, and I know very well how deeply the government is concerned about achieving even development across the country. However, from the perspective of balance, I sincerely hope that you will also look at the reality of Goyang City and northern Gyeonggi Province, which have silently endured long-term regulations."

The reason the city is speaking out so cautiously is because the northern part of Gyeonggi Province has lived with various regulations for a long time.

The northern part of Gyeonggi Province has been slowing down the pace of development for nearly 50 years under the so-called 'border area overlapping regulations', which include overpopulation control areas, military facility protection areas, development restrictions, and water source protection areas in the metropolitan area for national security and order in the metropolitan area.

Meanwhile, various infrastructure and quality jobs were concentrated in the southern part of Gyeonggi Province, and people's footsteps continued to the south.

This year, the financial independence of cities and counties in northern Gyeonggi Province should be around 30% at best, but most remain in the 10-20% range, falling far short of the Gyeonggi Province average (54.4%) as well as the national average (42.4%).

The city explains that it is experiencing double and triple difficulties by being excluded from support given to local areas because it belongs to the metropolitan area.

President Lee Jae-myung has also repeatedly expressed his interest in the northern part of Gyeonggi Province, which has endured long-standing restrictions, saying, “There should be special compensation for special sacrifices.”

The Korea Construction Research Institute is the only government-funded research institute in the construction and land management fields in Korea and the only research institute in the science and technology field in northern Gyeonggi Province.

It was opened as a foundation in 1983, moved to the main office in Ilsan in 1997, and integrated with the National Construction Testing Laboratory in 1999.