Gimpo should merge with Seoul

Kim Won-shik
The author is a visiting professor at Georgia State University and emeritus professor of economics at Konkuk University. He is an advisory committee member of the JoongAng Ilbo’s Reset Korea Campaign.

The governing People Power Party’s push to merge Gimpo City with Seoul fueled the idea that the capital would become a port city. Transforming Seoul, an inland city, into a marine city connected to the sea would not only make Seoul a megacity but also elevate the whole country’s economic stature.

As seen in Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, New York, San Francisco and London, nearly all of the world’s megacities have a harbor by the sea. Megacities with seaports, which connect sea to land, enhance the status of regional and national economies as they grow in size. The competition between the megacities representing each country has now become a national race.

Although all past administrations have claimed to promote balanced development among Korea’s regions, you can see from their failures that it was merely political rhetoric. Interdependence between cities is so high that if Seoul’s competitiveness falls, other cities cannot improve. We are no longer living an era of regional competition between Seoul and other provinces.

The merger of Gimpo should not be seen simply as a populist campaign pledge. The potential for Seoul’s development into a megacity has been growing, but election season has brought them to the surface. Even if the merger is a political act, it is ultimately the direction we should pursue given our socioeconomic realities. The Lee Myung-bak administration built the Ara Waterway, connecting the Han River with the Yellow Sea, because Seoul needed a port. Merging Gimpo into Seoul will strengthen the function of that waterway as the Lee administration intended.

Gimpo’s merger with Seoul would bring five key benefits.

First, Seoul used to be the key city in all areas, including administration, politics, economy and education, before the government complex was built in Sejong. Since the central government and 153 public offices were relocated to Sejong, Seoul has become more of an economic megacity than an administrative one.

Starting next year, 12 out of 17 National Assembly standing committees will move to Sejong City. The National Assembly’s Budget Office, Research Service, Future Institute and Library’s annex will also relocate there. The time has come for Seoul to draw up a strategy for becoming an economic hub. In this regard, the post-merger adjustment of administrative zones should aim to maximize the capital city’s economic efficiency.

Second, while it is up to the leaders of the Seoul Metropolitan Government to decide how to utilize Gimpo, it will likely become essential once maritime routes are opened. Transportation corridors that were blocked in the past due to administrative zoning also will be streamlined and unified. In addition, new industrial sites that can make Seoul a global city will be secured. Gimpo could very well become a new center of Seoul.

Third, the merger can help maximize the regional characteristics of the Korean Peninsula. As the country is bordered by the sea on three sides, you can get to water from anywhere in two to three hours. Korea must move away from the shadow of the continent and aim to become a marine country in the future.

Fourth, we should create more megacities centered around ports, not just Seoul, for balanced development in the country. If we create a megacity combining Busan, Ulsan and Pohang and another one linking Yeosu, Suncheon and Gwangyang, the peninsula can open an inspiring era of regions through megacities.

Finally, Seoul, after merging with Gimpo, can become a base to develop North Korea after reunification thanks to its closer proximity to the border. We must brace for a unified era through the merger.

A drastic reduction in our population, as seen in its record-law fertility rate of 0.7, threatens to wipe rural areas from the map. Since a city’s competitiveness is directly related to its country’s strength, it is necessary to increase efficiency through administrative zone adjustment. The costly standardization policy of the past is a waste of taxpayers’ money. Budget should have been the last resort, but it has become the primary tool. In the meantime, structural reforms have been laggard.

Seoul — a large city mostly centered around the downtown area and Gangnam District — is in dire need of a new leap forward. Once merging into the capital, Gimpo will no longer be a bed town. It will serve as the catalyst for a complete reorganization of the Korean Peninsula.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng daily staff.