◀ Anchor ▶
Is ‘Mega City Seoul’ really the right direction?
While there is a positive argument that administrative efficiency will increase as Seoul grows in size by absorbing surrounding areas, there are also concerns that it will only hasten the disappearance of local regions by aggravating the already serious phenomenon of concentration in Seoul and the metropolitan area.
Reporter Park Cheol-hyeon listened to the opinions of scholars.
◀ Report ▶
The biggest advantage of the so-called ‘Mega Seoul’, which integrates Seoul and nearby cities, is efficiency.
As a single living area has already been formed, administrative integration alone can help solve people’s livelihood problems, such as resolving traffic problems.
[김재훈/서울과학기술대학교 행정학과 교수]
″As the demand for metropolitan administration increases, the boundaries between local governments become a problem and cause inefficiency, so growing local governments is desirable and helpful for metropolitan administration… ″
Capital cities in developed countries, including Europe and Asia, have been promoting urbanization for a long time.
[이창무/한양대학교 도시공학과 교수]
″Beijing, cities in Europe, and Japan gave up the strategy of suppressing the metropolitan area much more than we did, and the direction of becoming a mega city is one that can accommodate the changes of the times.″
On the other hand, there are counterarguments that it goes against the trend of regional decentralization and balanced development, such as the relocation of the administrative capital or public enterprises.
It is pointed out that there are concerns that the already serious concentration in the metropolitan area will worsen further.
[권대중/서강대학교 일반대학원 부동산학과 교수]
″Provinces are disappearing and populations are decreasing, so we need to focus on balanced regional development. Can we just grow Seoul? Then, the population is increasingly flocking to Seoul.”
There is also a lot of criticism that this discussion is not feasible, pointing out that it started with political intentions.
[서종국/인천대학교 도시행정학과 교수]
″It’s unrealistic. Even from a professional or academic perspective, this is very likely to end up as just an incident. If done wrong, it will only cause conflict between local governments and is not feasible… ″
However, regardless of the pros and cons of ‘Mega Seoul’, there are voices that say it is necessary to discuss reorganizing old and existing administrative districts.
[마강래/중앙대학교 도시계획학과 교수]
″The administrative district retains the same framework from the Joseon Dynasty, but the functional area continues to change due to the development of transportation and communications. The government has a duty of the hour to properly reorganize administrative districts.”
Even among experts, opinions on Mega Seoul are divided, but both sides agree that sufficient discussion must take place first.
This is Park Cheol-hyeon from MBC News.
Video Editing: Jang Dong-jun
2023-11-01 10:53:54
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