[EDITORIAL]Lee`s New Deal

President Lee Myung-bak is a man of extraordinary perseverance. A successful CEO of a top construction firm before his political career, he is obsessed with rebuilding this country into a huge industrial park, and the blueprints in his brain have been drawn up along the four major rivers of the country. The Grand Canal project linking these rivers to form cross-country waterways for transportation, irrigation and tourism was a major item in his campaign manifesto but it had to be shelved after the election due to strong public opposition.

Now in the midst of immense financial and economic challenges, Lee has found an opportunity to launch his dream project. After quick studies by a presidential committee, the government Monday announced an extensive project to develop the four rivers as part of a five-year, 100 trillion won program to revitalize the economy.

Aware of the significant opposition to the Grand Canal, the cost for the rivers project has been reduced to 14 trillion won from the original 20 trillion won. The most notable difference is the absence of the fantastic tunnels and floodgates to connect the upper streams of the Han and Nakdong Rivers across a mountain range. The new project is to improve the economic value of the two longest rivers and the southwestern Geum and Yeongsan Rivers through dredging and construction of embankments, dams and water treatment plants.

The project is aimed at creating jobs and speeding up the balanced development of the country. Other parts of the local revival program seek to spur provincial economies and improve health care and education in all parts of the country. The refurbishing of the rivers is projected to create 190,000 jobs, induce production worth 23 trillion won and save some 7 trillion won that is spent each year to combat flooding.

There are good reasons to assess Lee`s "New Deal" positively at this time, when everyone is gripped with fears of an extended recession, as long as it doesn`t invoke the specter of the Grand Canal. It will be "sweet rain" for the construction industry suffering from a bleak housing market. Reactions from environmentalists will be considerably subdued in view of the current economic situation.

The Ministry of Homeland and Maritime Affairs once again emphasized that the four-river project was not a revival of the Grand Canal. Lee, for his part, is urging an early beginning to the river work, with the participation of provincial contractors. Opponents of the canal project need not be too suspicious of any hidden plot. They must trust the administration, which is toiling to achieve an economic revival with investment of all resources under its control.

What is important is that careful feasibility studies are made for every segment of the project and that government funding is distributed reasonably. Attention should be given to the principle that the river work is part of a comprehensive plan to promote balanced development of the provinces alongside the central Seoul-Gyeonggi zone.

The existing decentralization plan to push the relocation of government offices and major state-run corporations as well as large enterprises to provincial cities, launched by the previous administration, should not be neglected while the new regional development program is implemented. As it works on the river development and other projects, we will see how effectively the Lee administration carries out existing development programs in harmony with new ones. We note that the whole program is spread out over five years, allowing the next administration to finish it.

[출처 : 코리아헤럴드]