Busan civic groups are pressing the government to designate the relocation of maritime and fisheries public institutions to Busan as a formal national policy priority and act on it without further delay. They also called on Busan city to clearly separate those institutions from the broader second-round public institution relocation drive and present that distinction to the central government.
Groups including the Busan Citizens' Solidarity for Decentralization and Balanced Development, the Maritime Capital Busan Development Council, and the Citizens Together for a Maritime Powerhouse held a press conference Tuesday morning at the Busan City Council briefing room, urging swift fulfillment of the president's campaign pledge to relocate maritime and fisheries public institutions.
The groups said the relocation of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries to Busan, completed last December, had been both a presidential campaign pledge and a national policy commitment aimed at decentralizing state functions concentrated in the Greater Seoul area and positioning South Korea as a global maritime power. "But eight months after the ministry's relocation was completed, no concrete schedule or action plan has been presented for the relocation of six maritime and fisheries public institutions, including the Korea Maritime Transportation Safety Authority," they said.
The groups expressed particular concern that the six maritime agencies could be lumped in with the broader second-round relocation of public institutions to regional areas, which the government is expected to announce in the second half of this year. They argued that relocating maritime and fisheries public institutions is a separate national policy obligation — one required to complete the ministry's own move — and must not be handled under the same framework as ordinary public institution transfers.
"Only when shipping and port companies, maritime finance, and maritime judicial functions gather together — with the ministry and related public institutions as the catalyst — can a true maritime capital be built and a world-class maritime cluster take shape," the groups said. They warned that if the government treats the relocation of maritime agencies the same as a routine public institution transfer, the policy impact of moving the ministry will be diluted and the credibility of the president's campaign pledge will be undermined.
The groups called on the government and Cheong Wa Dae to formally designate the relocation of the six maritime and fisheries public institutions, including the Korea Maritime Transportation Safety Authority, as an independent national project and proceed accordingly. They also pressed Busan city to clearly separate the maritime agencies from the second-round relocation list when presenting its case to the central government, and to take proactive steps to ensure neither the consolidation of maritime administration nor the second-round relocation effort is derailed.
Meanwhile, Busan Mayor Jeon Jae-soo chaired a meeting of the city's dedicated public institution relocation task force on Monday to review detailed strategies for attracting institutions in the second round. The city discussed its attraction strategy around four specialized clusters: finance, maritime, advanced industry and research and development, and film and video. In the maritime sector, institutions under consideration included the Korea Institute of Marine Science and Technology Promotion, the Korea Maritime Transportation Safety Authority, the Korea Fisheries Infrastructure Public Agency, and the Korea Marine Environment Management Corp. The potential inclusion of Korea Development Bank in the finance category also drew attention.
kaf2002@heraldcorp.com
