The city of Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, was ed on Tuesday (Dec. 13) as a location for an innovative city, designed to host public organizations and state-invested enterprises under regional development plans.
A planning committee at the North Gyeongsang Provincial Government announced Gimcheon as the final candidate to host the innovative city over other cities such as Sangju and Andong, highly uating the citys favorable location and advanced transportation infrastructure.
The provincial government will submit its nomination of Gimcheon to the central government by the end of this month. And with approval, it will announce the construction plans for the innovative city in Gimcheon in January. The construction is expected to begin around 2007.
The innovative city is a concept deployed by the Roh Moo-hyun administration, which had been aggressively pushing plans for balanced regional development. According to the plans, the government will relocate 176 public organizations and state-run enterprises to 11 innovative cities by 2012, one for each provincial districts excluding Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province.
The government is expecting to build an administrative city in the Yeongi-Gongju area in South Chungcheong Province by 2014, transferring a larger part of Seouls administrative s to the new town.
Under the urban development plans, Gimcheon is expected to host 13 public organizations and state-invested enterprises including the Korea Highway Corporation.
