Chapter 404 |
Humans are capable of learning.
Having learned their lesson from the last hearing, the Liberty People's Party had thoroughly prepared for this economic hearing. They had already achieved considerable success in highlighting the government's economic failures.
Now, the remaining opponent was Kang Jin-hoo.
The Liberty People's Party planned to emphasize that the supplementary budget was concentrated on Saemangeum, simultaneously provoking a sense of deprivation in other regions to maximize opposition.
They had drafted a scenario and prepared countermeasures accordingly, but an entirely unexpected situation unfolded.
“Many citizens are currently concerned about the environmental destruction of the pristine Saemangeum area…”
Before Assemblyman Lee Cheol-seung of the Liberty People's Party, representing Pohang Nam-gu, could even finish his question, Kang Jin-hoo bowed his head.
“Thank you to the workers of the Pohang region.”
At the out-of-the-blue remark, Assemblyman Lee Cheol-seung roared.
Kang Jin-hoo smiled and spoke fluently.
“Pohang is a city of steel and machinery industries, home to POSCO. For the Saemangeum development, we plan to prioritize ordering steel materials from the Pohang Steel Industrial Complex. Once development begins, Pohang's factories will operate 24/7 without rest, so I wanted to first express my gratitude to the workers who will be toiling through overtime and extra shifts.”
Hearing that, Assemblyman Lee Cheol-seung immediately closed the documents he had prepared.
“I see. Understood.”
This was just the beginning.
Cho Jae-hoon, Liberty People's Party Assemblyman for Daegu Dalseong Gap.
“Daegu Technopolis plays the most crucial role in South Korea's robot industry. As robotics is the most important industry to lead the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we will create a robot belt linking Saemangeum and Daegu, and spare no support in making Daegu the mecca of the robot industry in the future.”
“Hmm, I’ll look forward to it.”
Nam Yong-seok, Liberty People's Party Assemblyman for Uljin County.
“Uljin houses Korea’s largest nuclear power plant. The TWR Research Institute to be established in Saemangeum will cooperate with the Nuclear Power Headquarters to enhance the safety of nuclear plants and further increase investment in related facilities.”
“Ah, yes. TWR is important.”
Lee Han-chool, Liberty People's Party Assemblyman for Ulsan Jung-gu.
“Ulsan is the heart of Korean manufacturing, with well-developed shipbuilding and automotive industries. Eunseong Cha Group will increase investment in Ulsan’s automobile plants and foster parts suppliers.”
“I earnestly request your efforts.”
Kim Sung-kyu, Liberty People's Party Assemblyman for Tongyeong.
“Tongyeong possesses a natural paradise where peninsulas and islands harmonize. It also has diverse tourism resources. However, due to poor accessibility, there are fewer foreign tourists compared to domestic ones. Accordingly, we are planning ways to link foreign tourists coming to Saemangeum with the tourism industry in Gyeongnam, including Tongyeong. What are your thoughts, Assemblyman?”
“Hmm, I think that’s an excellent idea.”
Kang Jin-hoo cajoled the assemblymen as if he were resolving their local civil complaints.
As the same situation repeated, the questioning assemblymen, instead of wearing aggressive expressions, had eyes like children anticipating gifts from Santa.
Depending on who says it, words can become truth or falsehood. If someone else had said it, it would have been dismissed as unfeasible nonsense, but with Kang Jin-hoo, it was a different story.
It was understandable, as he could move hundreds of trillions of won with a single word.
To the assemblymen worried about population outflow and industrial hollowing, Kang Jin-hoo said, as if making a promise:
“The factories built in Saemangeum will be in high-tech industries, and we will absolutely not take away existing manufacturing plants from other regions. The most important thing in developing Saemangeum is cooperation with surrounding areas. By fostering new industries, we will promote shared growth with existing manufacturing and strengthen linkages in tourism and service sectors. Furthermore, by attracting foreign financial companies to Saemangeum, we will make it easier for local SMEs to secure funding, and by creating a fund, we will support the growth of manufacturing and tourism service industries in each region.”
Assemblymen representing Gangwon-do, Chungcheong-do, Gyeongsang-do, Daegu City, Busan City, Ulsan City, and others all stopped their questioning and nodded vigorously.
***
I didn’t pay much attention to it, but the power wielded by a National Assembly member is considerable.
What’s most important is the symbolism. The 300 National Assembly members represent 50 million citizens. Thus, one assembly member represents 170,000 people. Well, that doesn’t mean an assembly member’s mind is the same as the people’s.
Assemblyman Yeon Seong-su, representing Incheon Yeongjongdo. He had previously served as the mayor of Incheon and had a history of leading various development plans in Incheon since his mayoral days.
Assemblyman Yeon Seong-su said abruptly.
“Instead of developing Saemangeum, we should develop Eight City first. We need to immediately invest 300 trillion won to create reclaimed land in Yeongjongdo. Does OTK Company have any intention of investing here for Incheon’s development?”
It was so out of the blue that I was speechless for a moment.
“Was that still ongoing?”
“Of course! Eight City is the future of Incheon and Yeongjongdo!”
Around the time Dubai was constructing its new city, the media wrote articles praising it as a ‘miracle in the desert,’ and politicians at the time loudly called for similar large-scale civil engineering projects in Korea.
Impressed by this, local governments all jumped on the bandwagon, announcing plans to develop new cities. All sorts of new city plans poured out at this time.
Global City, Sky City, Tomorrow City, Design City, Robot City, Creative Economy City, and so on.
Among them, the highlight was the Eight City development plan. All the new city development plans across the country combined couldn't hold a candle to this one.
It was an ambitious and magnificent plan to reclaim land south of Yeongjongdo, near Yongyudo and Muuido, to create an 80-square-kilometer city shaped like the number 8.
The reason for choosing the number 8 was likely to attract Chinese capital, as it’s the most favored number by the Chinese.
Anyway, if it had proceeded as planned, it would have been recorded as the largest construction project since Dangun (the mythical founder of Korea). But why hadn’t it happened yet?
Because, of course, it was a ridiculous plan.
The estimated project cost for Eight City was 317 trillion won!
This amount was equivalent to the national budget for an entire year at the time. With this money, you could develop all the new cities in the country and still have enough left over to build dozens of skyscrapers.
“Eight City must be developed first. Why Saemangeum New City, but not Eight City?”
“……Are you really asking because you don’t know?”
Incheon was overflowing with areas to develop, such as Yeongjongdo, Songdo, and Cheongna. When they couldn’t even develop existing land due to budget shortages, did it make any sense to pour hundreds of trillions of won into reclaiming the sea?
What kind of madman came up with this plan?
If Taek-gyu had been here, he would have cursed, saying even SimCity isn’t played that way.
He himself probably knew it was unrealistic. So, was he doing this here to show his constituents, ‘Look how hard I’m working’?
“Please positively review the development of Eight City, Yeongjongdo’s long-cherished project.”
Assemblyman Yeon Seong-su emphasized the Eight City development a few more times before passing the microphone. This time, it was Assemblyman Baek Chang-joo’s turn.
“Our city was also pursuing a theme park project. We even signed an MOU and planned to create the world’s best theme park city, combining a theme park and residential complex, but we haven’t even broken ground yet!”
It was an excellent plan to attract a theme park and build apartments next to it for sale. For reference, that MOU was signed 10 years ago, and there’s still only talk about whether to do it or not.
I nodded.
“You can proceed as planned. It’s not like I stopped you, is it?”
“You’re attracting both Disneyland and Universal Studios to Saemangeum, aren’t you? Then who would come to our city’s theme park? We can’t compete in terms of scale or recognition.”
“Competition is natural in a market economy. I can’t just not build a theme park for the sake of your constituency, can I?”
“So, what I’m saying is, hand Disneyland over to our city. You said Universal Studios is coming to Saemangeum too. Universal Studios in Saemangeum, Disneyland in our city. Wouldn’t it look so much better for the public if there’s one in each place?”
I asked, dumbfounded.
“Do you think Disneyland would want to go there?”
Assemblyman Baek Chang-joo said in a suggestive tone.
“Well, couldn’t CEO Kang Jin-hoo persuade them?”
“……”
Why should I?
The development of Saemangeum would hardly cause any damage to metropolitan cities or provincial cities. This was because their industries didn't overlap in the first place.
However, Seoul and the metropolitan area were a different story. If Saemangeum development proceeded, large corporations would have no reason to invest in the metropolitan area, braving high land costs, various regulations, and resident opposition.
Indeed, after the Saemangeum development plan was announced, companies put their metropolitan investment plans on hold, and the 3rd New Town plan hit the brakes.
Perhaps because of this, assemblymen with constituencies in the metropolitan area made various demands, hoping to get something out of it.
As expected, once I started giving things away, it seemed they saw me as the Giving Tree. Why on earth did they expect so much from me?
Instead of refusing, I glossed over it with phrases like ‘positive review’ or ‘I’ll discuss it.’
When the assemblymen’s offensive noticeably weakened, perhaps sensing it wasn’t working, the Liberty People's Party leadership stepped up directly, changing the questioning order.
If what had happened so far was a practice game, this was the main event.
The assemblyman who stepped forward this time was Yeo Hwan-soo, a supreme council member of the Liberty People's Party. In his 70s, he was considered one of the most senior veterans within the party.
He took out his prepared documents.
“The Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency and OTK Company decided to create the Saemangeum Development Corporation together. This is clear collusion between politics and business, and preferential treatment for a large corporation.”
“What’s the problem with the government and a company joining hands to develop a new city?”
“It’s only a public corporation in name. Doesn’t OTK Company take most of the shares?”
“OTK Company’s stake is limited to 49 percent, and the Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency holds the majority of the shares.”
Yeo Hwan-soo narrowed his eyes and pressed hard.
“So what? It’s public development in name only. Doesn’t OTK Company actually take the lead in development?”
“We plan to develop it in close cooperation with the government.”
“Stop beating around the bush! OTK Company has the development initiative, right? Is it true or not? Yes or no? Just answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’!”
I nodded.
“Yes.”
“Don’t lie… Huh? What did you just say?”
“I said ‘yes.’ It is correct that OTK Company will lead the Saemangeum development.”
“Ah, no, what did you say?”
Perhaps not expecting me to admit it, Yeo Hwan-soo was severely flustered.
I continued calmly.
“The Saemangeum development has been continuously pursued by the government, but progress has been so sluggish that even the land reclamation hasn't been properly completed. However, if OTK Company pursues it, we can finish the first phase of development within three years.”
Yeo Hwan-soo frowned slightly.
“Well, fine. Then, if it’s not carried out as planned within three years, will you give up your shares again and step down from your position as CEO of OTK Company?”
I tilted my head.
“Do I have to go that far?”
At my words, he shouted as if he had caught a good pretext.
“Then were you claiming to do something you couldn’t even do? This is deceiving and defrauding the public! Apologize to the people immediately!”
He was thoroughly enjoying himself.
His appearance was unsightly, so I retorted immediately.
“Alright. Then if I complete the first phase of development within three years, will you, Assemblyman, resign from your position and retire from politics, promising the people here and now?”
At my words, Yeo Hwan-soo looked as if he had misheard.
“Wh-what did you just say?”
I said, as if it were obvious.
“You’ll know well since you even apologized after being caught playing a betting game of golf with businessmen during a disaster situation when a fire broke out in a mixed-use building in your district. If you’re going to make a bet, both sides have to put something up. Why only me? I’ll put my position on the line, so you put yours on the line too, Assemblyman. If you’re confident, go for it. If you’re chicken… no, if you’re not confident, then just give it up.”
At those words, Yeo Hwan-soo, as if his lid had blown, jumped up and shouted.
“What? Chicken what? Fine! Let’s bet! Let’s do it! I’ll stake my assembly seat! How dare you look down on a National Assembly member!”
He really seemed to like betting.
Some assemblymen tried to stop him from the side, while others shouted along. Assemblyman Ma Sang-tae, who was presiding over the hearing, banged the table and exclaimed.
“What is this behavior in a hearing room? CEO Kang Jin-hoo, bow your head and apologize immediately! Doing this to a National Assembly member elected by the people is an insult to the people!”
I said calmly.
“Treating me like this is also an insult to the workers.”
Assemblyman Ma Sang-tae roared.
“What? What does this have to do with workers!?”
I shrugged.
“Strangely, when National Assembly members feel they’ve been insulted, they always drag the people into it, so I thought I’d try it too. Just as there are National Assembly members because there are people, aren’t there businesspeople because there are workers?”
“……”
