PPP slams public agency relocation plan as declaration without substance

The People Power Party on Thursday criticized the government's newly announced second-phase plan for relocating public institutions outside Seoul, calling it "a declaration that left out the target agencies and a funding plan." Lawmakers from affected regions also pushed back against proposals to merge port authorities and split the Korea Land and Housing Corporation.

PPP Chief Floor Spokesperson Choi Su-jin said in a statement that while the party supports the goal of balanced national development, "this announcement was limited to a declaration of principles, with no specifics confirmed on which agencies will move, to which regions, or at what scale."

She said an assessment of the first round of public agency relocations must come first. "The bigger problem is that there is no proper diagnosis or reflection on the failures of the first relocation," Choi said, adding that the government itself had acknowledged the effects of the first round were confined to areas near innovation cities and that population outflows had resumed after 2023.

She then urged the government to transparently disclose its financing plan and engage sufficiently with local communities and labor groups, warning that repeating the same slogan of "sending them all at once" would only produce the same failures.

Choi also raised concerns about the government's plan to lease private buildings during the relocation process, saying rushing with stopgap measures risked pushing things through without adequate consultation with labor groups and local governments, turning it into a showcase exercise.

Criticism also extended to the government's plan to consolidate overlapping functions among public institutions and merge smaller agencies.

Five-term lawmaker Yun Sang-hyun said on Facebook that "pursuing mergers without targets for headcount, labor costs or debt reduction could result in bloated consolidation," and called on the government to "present a reform plan that actually cuts to the bone, not just reform in words." He also demanded the release of annual implementation schedules.

Yun was particularly firm in opposing the plan to merge port authorities, including Incheon Port Authority. "The plan to convert Incheon Port Authority into a regional branch must be reconsidered from scratch," he said, arguing that each port authority has distinct industrial hinterlands, logistics demands and growth strategies.

Lawmaker Bae Jun-young also targeted the plan to merge the four port authorities. "There were reasons each region set up its own port authority, and there is no clear explanation of what exactly would improve by merging the legal entities," Bae said. He noted that a 2011 government study had found the practical benefits of consolidation to be limited, and stressed that "above all, the regions do not want the merger."

The government's decision to separate the Korea Land and Housing Corporation's development and residential welfare functions drew backlash from South Gyeongsang Province.

Park Dae-chul, a four-term lawmaker representing Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, said residents had "marched to Seoul in the rain five years ago to fight tooth and nail against splitting LH," and called the renewed attempt "a move that directly ignores them."

He added that "the South Gyeongsang innovation city is a model case for balanced regional development nationwide, and LH in particular is the vanguard of balanced national land development and a symbol of Jinju."