“The institution requested relocation first”… Is Daejeon the ‘Southern Limit Line’ for relocation of public institutions?

Ahead of the government's announcement of the second relocation of public institutions to regional areas, competition among local governments to attract institutions is intensifying.

Although the council and residents are making all-out efforts to call for the relocation of public institutions, Daejeon shows quite a different pattern from other regions, with public institutions taking the lead and requesting 'preemption of entrance' from the city.

According to Daejeon City on the 14th, Daejeon Mayor Heo Tae-jeong met with Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute Director Nam Gwang-woo and Labor Union Chairman Kim Chang-gyu at the National Land Development Exhibition Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 11th of this month to discuss relocating the Environmental Industry and Technology Institute to Daejeon.

The meeting on this day was held at the request of the Environmental Industry and Technology Institute union in line with the schedule of Mayor Heo, who visited the National Assembly to secure national funds.

The Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute's union previously visited Daejeon with six other public institution unions on September 2, strongly requesting the relocation to Daejeon and asking the city to actively engage in attraction activities.

Korea Polytechnic, another public institution, also discussed relocation plans with the mayor of Daejeon on September 8 with Chairman Lee Cheol-soo, and on the 3rd of this month, a union representative visited Daejeon and requested relocation.

On this day, union representatives from three other organizations, including the Small and Medium Venture Business Distribution Center, visited Daejeon together, and a week later, Lee Tae-sik, CEO of the Small and Medium Venture Business Distribution Center, visited the mayor and asked for cooperation for the relocation to Daejeon.

This is very different from other local governments, where the city or provincial governor directly visits the relevant public institution and suggests relocation, or even residents and merchants come forward and urge relocation.

There seems to be a sense of desperation here, ‘I will not go down to Daejeon.’ In particular, if families must travel together, considering various infrastructure such as education, welfare, and transportation, Daejeon may be the former 'Southern Limit Line'.

Daejeon is considered a preferred area for relocation of public institutions due to its infrastructure, including the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the Daedeok Research and Development Special Zone, where government-funded research institutes in the science and technology field are concentrated.

In particular, it has excellent accessibility as it is less than an hour away from the metropolitan area by KTX, and Chungnam National University was selected for the government's 'Creating 10 Seoul National Universities' project and received intensive support. It is also evaluated that it has a medical support system due to the presence of national university hospitals such as Chungnam National University Hospital.

Accordingly, employees of public institutions subject to relocation are actively appealing that their entire families will relocate or that it will help revitalize the local economy, and are requesting that the city give them support by specifying the name of the institution in detail.

Kim Chang-gyu, union leader of the Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute, said in a phone call with Yonhap News, "Because our organization is large, local governments across the country, including Naju, Gwangju, Ulsan, and Changwon, are trying to attract each other, making our employees anxious." He added, "In particular, Naepo New Town in South Chungcheong Province claims to be a 'carbon neutral city' and will attract our organization, but in a situation where there is no infrastructure, if we go alone, aren't we becoming an environmental city?"

He continued, "Right now, in July of next year, our agency's office in Eunpyeong-gu is scheduled to be a site for apartment housing supply, so we have been preparing to relocate to Daejeon for a year now," and added, "The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said it would provide incentives to organizations that take the lead, and given the nature of our agency, which is a specialized research management agency, Daejeon, where research and development (R&D) functions are concentrated, fits the relocation area."

In this way, the high level of acceptance among employees of former public institutions can be a strength in the attraction strategy.

In preparation for the second relocation of public institutions, the city has prepared a temporary building that can house 25 institutions, centered around Daejeon Station, an innovative city space.

However, Jeonnam Gwangju Unified City is legally ranked first for public institution relocation due to administrative integration, and the government's basic principle for secondary public institution relocation is 'clustered arrangement centered on existing innovation cities', so there is also a prediction that Daejeon, a late innovation city with no public institutions to relocate, is difficult to see as having an advantage.

Yoo Se-jong, head of the city's second public institution relocation response team, told Yonhap News, "We are not worried as long as we can only receive organizations that wish to move to Daejeon. We are claiming that no public institutions have relocated in Daejeon even after the additional designation as an innovation city, but it is not easy to appeal as the third government building has already been moved down."

He added, “We will develop an attraction strategy focusing on areas that can create synergy by linking our strengths, such as science and technology, intellectual property, and entrepreneurship, with the local industries that the government is pursuing.”