KOREA: Koreans will be able to use public transportation in all regions with one transportation card beginning in 2007, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation said yesterday in a policy report.

The government will also complete the relocation of 12 ministries and 30 other public agencies out of Seoul to a new administrative city to be built in Yeongi-Gongju, South Chungcheong Province by 2012, Construction Minister Kang Dong-suk said during a policy report to President Roh Moo-hyun at Cheong Wae Dae.

In order to encourage use of transportation cards, the government will expand their usage from buses and the subway to also include taxis, highway ticket booths, railroads, public parks and parking lots,

Transportation cards in one region are currently incompatible with those in other areas, causing inconvenience to people who commute between different regions, such as between Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province.

In an effort to reduce overcrowding and concentration of political and economic resources in Seoul and promote balanced regional development, 12 ministries including those of finance, commerce, information, labor, education, and science will be moved to the Yeongi-Gongju area. The region is the original location of the government's capital relocation plan, which was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court last October.

Apart from the administrative city, about 150 more public agencies will move from the capital to 11 other cities nationwide, excluding Chungcheong Provinces.

In order to revive the depressed construction industry, the government will also increase its budget on research and development in the sector by 100 percent every year until 2007, and frontload about 62 percent of construction budget in the first half of the year, the ministry said.

The government will expand investment in construction sector by 2 trillion won this year with the aim of creating 40,000 jobs. The construction industry accounted for 17 percent of gross domestic product before the slump.

Source:
(soyoung@heraldm.com)
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