Lee to personally oversee 'mega-project' hurdles, including military airport relocation

President Lee Jae Myung will sit down with government officials and business leaders Monday to review progress on three major mega-projects — including the Honam semiconductor initiative — and push for faster ground-breaking and investment execution.

Lee will chair the second public-private joint review meeting on the mega-projects at Cheong Wa Dae Monday afternoon.

The session follows the first meeting held on July 6 and will take a comprehensive look at potential obstacles to project implementation, including regulatory and permitting issues, site acquisition, and power and water supply.

The meeting will also take up ways to spread the benefits of the mega-projects beyond large conglomerates and into the broader regional industrial ecosystem.

While the first meeting focused on confirming specific investment plans and the direction of the three mega-projects, Monday's session is expected to zero in on practical issues that could arise during implementation and to flesh out follow-up measures for early ground-breaking.

The government has placed regulatory reform and administrative innovation at the top of the agenda to keep the mega-projects on pace.

Large-scale advanced-industry projects require multiple ministries and local governments to move simultaneously — from securing project sites and obtaining permits to building infrastructure and locking in power and water supplies. A delay at any single stage could throw the entire investment schedule off track.

To that end, the meeting will open with remarks by Lee, followed by a briefing from Office for Government Policy Coordination chief Im Gi-geun on regulatory reform and government innovation in support of the mega-projects. Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Kim Jung-kwan and Deputy Prime Minister for Science and Technology Bae Kyung-hoon, who also serves as Minister of Science and ICT, will then present a report on co-prosperity cooperation plans for the three mega-projects.

Particular attention will fall on the Honam semiconductor cluster, where the project site has been confirmed in the area of Gwangju's military airport, leaving the airport's relocation as a key outstanding task. With the pace of industrial infrastructure development now central to achieving an early ground-breaking, Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back, Air Force Chief of Staff Son Seok-rak, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Jin Yeong-seung, Land Minister Kim Yong-deok, and Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy Minister Kim Sung-hwan will present plans for the semiconductor cluster site and power and water supply.

The meeting will also review progress on mega-projects in the Chungcheong and Yeongnam regions. Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan and Deputy Prime Minister for the Economy Koo Yun-cheol, who concurrently serves as Minister of Economy and Finance, will report on the status and schedule of those regional projects.

Cheong Wa Dae chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik, policy chief Kim Yong-beom and national security adviser Wi Sung-lac will attend alongside Prime Minister Han Seong-sook and relevant cabinet ministers. From the private sector, Samsung Electronics President Kim Yong-kwan and SK future growth president Jeong Seung-il are also expected to participate.