"No country in history became a great country after forsaking the sea in its development plans,” declared President Moon Jae-in in his speech at the 22nd Marine Day ceremony held at Saemangeum City Plaza in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, on May 31, signaling his intention to develop the ocean and fisheries industries.
“Our sea is the security, economy, and also peoples’ livelihoods at the same time,” he said, pledging to change the government focus on its priority policy objectives.
The Chief Executive announced that the government will set up the Korea Maritime Shipping Finance Corp. exclusively to provide financial support for the development of maritime and shipbuilding industries in Korea. The president said he will lead a plan to build a financial support system for maritime and shipbuilding industries so Korea’s maritime companies can order environment-friendly vessels and engage in daring competition with leading global shipping firms.
He promised he will leave no stones unturned in providing support to the maritime, harbor and fisheries industries to order new and public vessels, including those to replace old ones, and development projects for harbors overseas by utilizing all available government policies.
President Moon also called for the development of Saemangeum City as a hub in Northeast Asia and the center of economic cooperation with China. He will directly take care of any plans for the development of the area at Cheong Wa Dae, which will include the construction of new highways, and key infrastructure such as to make Saemangeum be the center of the Pan-Yellow Sea Economic Sphere.
He said the most critical problem in the development of Saemangeum has been how long it takes to build key infrastructure in the reclaimed land, including harbors and roads. He indicated that some of the projects, including the reclamation of the rest of the area, may be made with public funds, not private funds as determined earlier in the plan. A new harbor must be built as the existing harbor is too shallow for large cargo vessels to disembark. Under the Saemangeum Plan set up in 2011, some 73 percent of the area that needed to be reclaimed should be completed by 2020, but only 36 percent has been reclaimed. The plan envisaged that some 22.2 trillion won would be needed for the project, but so far only 4.7 trillion won has been spent.
The budget is made up with 10.9 trillion won in government funds and 10.3 trillion won in private-sector investment funds. Moon also promised to examine creating jobs from the sea with recycled energy, marine bio and other new industries and the 4th Industrial Revolution.
Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency (SDIA) carried out tailored investment activities in France, along with Jeollabuk-do and French-Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI) for five days from Nov. 28 to Dec. 5. The visit to France was focused on meeting potential French investors to Korea and Asia, and to study the local market and industries through compact and effective investment consulting.
The Saemangeum Seawall, located on the southwest coast of the Korean peninsula, is the world's longest man-made dyke, measuring 33 kilometres. It runs between two headlands, and separates the Yellow Sea and the former Saemangeum estuary.
In 1991, the South Korean government announced that a dyke would be constructed to link three headlands just south of the South Korean industrial port city of Gunsan, 270 kilometres southwest of Seoul, to create 400 square kilometres of farmland and a freshwater reservoir. Since then, the government has spent nearly 2 trillion won ($2.1 million) on construction of the dyke, with another 220 billion won budgeted on strengthening the dyke and a further 1.31 trillion won to transform the tidal flats into arable land and the reservoir. The average width of the sea wall/earth dam is 290 metres at its widest and the average height is 36 metres at its highest.
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