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| From left, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Gyeonggi Governor Kim Dong-yeon and Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok shake hands at Dodamso, the former office for governors of Gyeonggi province, in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government |
Fourth tripartite meeting results in cooperative deal
By Ko Dong-hwan
Seoul, Incheon and and Gyeonggi Province agreed to a deal, Tuesday, to cooperate in resolving problems the three local governments face.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok and Gyeonggi Governor Kim Dong-yeon held a meeting in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province to sign the business partnership.
The meeting saw the leaders sign a deal to jointly tackle issues impacting citizens' daily lives, businesses and raise the prospects of attracting future international events.
The leaders agreed to jointly tackle mounting waste from households, businesses and construction sites in the capital region with a population of 26 million people. Waste has been going to the Sudokwon Landfill Site in Incheon for decades, but the capacity of the giant dumping ground is forecast to run out in a few years and its shutdown is inevitable, prompting the local governments to find alternate places to store waste.
Another issue that has been drawing attention is the construction of four new railway lines across the capital area for a rapid rail service called GTX. The parties agreed that the large-scale transit infrastructure project should be completed without delay.
Hosting international events that invite athletes, dignitaries from global organizations or other foreign visitors, also become a common agenda for the three local governments under the latest tripartite agreement. They agreed to allow access to local venues and jointly promote global events being held within the capital area.
They also agreed to put the region's local waterways that run across jurisdictional borders to more use by redeveloping infrastructure for docks and bringing in more vessels not just for tourism, but also for trade. They specifically eyed Gyeongin Ara Waterway, which connects the West Sea to the Han River through Incheon. The Seoul mayor has been particularly vocal about redeveloping the waterway, currently used only by sightseeing cruises, to transport people and equipment to promote trade.
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| From left, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, Gyeonggi Governor Kim Dong-yeon and Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok sign a deal to jointly tackle problems in the capital region, at Dodamso, Tuesday. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government |
Kim emphasized that their three meetings have finally borne fruit after signing the partnership deal.
"Now, it's time for the three governments to make some visible progress," he said. "Residents in the capital region should face less hectic commutes to workplaces over long distances and national regulations in the capital region that are relatively more stringent than other regions should be relaxed, and the three authorities should come up with a joint warning system for citizens in times of large-scale disasters."
"Today's meeting has attracted so much public attention because there are so many important issues to deal with in the capital region," the Incheon mayor said. "We should abide by the slogan 'Only for the citizens, only for the country.' Out of such a stance will we see promising policies and solutions that will satisfy all residents of Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi."
Having a partnership across jurisdictional borders to solve common problems promotes the discovery of solutions to local problems, according to Seoul's mayor.
"If the three governments sit down together often and continue to discuss matters consistently, nothing will be unsolvable," Oh said.
Through the meeting, they also picked 10 common tasks in their regions and agreed to work on them together.
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