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Sejong City becomes a business hub driven by education and science
Korean government announced on 11 January, the revisions to the Sejong City project, in which they scrapped the original plan to build a multifunctional administrative city, relocating 11 government agencies include the prime minister's office. Instead, the government decided to construct an economic hub for science and education. The date of the city’s establishment will be pushed up from 2030 to 2020.
Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology issued a statement on the same day saying Sejong City is the appropriate site for the International Science Business Belt, where the rare isotope accelerator, the basic science research institute and the convergence research center will be built.
The Ministry explains Sejong’s advantage that the city, with its established infrastructure, is the great location about 150 kilometers south of Seoul and within two hours reaches to most major cities in Korea. Also, the Sejong’s location neighboring to the Daedeok Innopolis, which houses 20 government research institutes, ten government-invested institutes, and 33 private R&D labs, would enable the new business belt to become Korean “Silicon Valley”.
Moreover, 3.5 trillion won (3.1 billion U.S. dollars) of public funds will go into this science belt project. But the government needs to pass the ”Special Bill on Sejong City” before starting the project. The government is expected to submit the bill to the National Assembly in April.