Residents of Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongnam pointed out the construction of Gadeok New Airport as a top priority for the success of the Southeastern Mega City. Economic cooperation between regions and construction of a wide-area transportation network were also recognized as essential projects for realizing megacity.
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On the 31st, according to the results of a public opinion poll conducted by the Kukje Newspaper to Polycom, an agency specializing in public opinion polls and conducted on 3003 residents of Boulgyeong over the age of 18, the residents of Boulgyeong cited the construction of Gadeok New Airport as the top priority of the Southeastern megacity.
46.2% of respondents in Busan and 23.6% of Gyeongnam chose the construction of Gaduk New Airport as the top priority. On the other hand, in Ulsan, public institutions relocated (27.5%) slightly more than the construction of Gadeok New Airport (21.3%).
Economic cooperation and establishment of a wide-area transportation network were cited as interregional projects to be pursued to realize megacity. As the proportion of the population in the metropolitan area exceeds 50% of the total population, and the outflow of local youth in the metropolitan area has emerged as a common problem in the Booul-gyeong, it seems that there is a strong awareness that we must respond to unipolarism in the metropolitan area by revitalizing the local economy. In addition to narrowing the psychological distance between regions, the establishment of the Boulgyeong metropolitan area transportation network to realize the daily living area essential for economic cooperation was seen as an urgent business.
However, it turns out that there is a high wall to overcome for the megacity promotion. In particular, there were many skeptical views about whether megacity could be an alternative to responding to unipolarism in the metropolitan area. In Busan, 41.8% of respondents said that it would be a realistic alternative, which was higher than that of ‘No’ (32.6%), but in Gyeongnam and Ulsan, negative responses exceeded the positive comments at 42.7% and 42.2%, respectively.
It was analyzed that only the term’megacity’ was familiar, but the perception of details was still in its infancy. The residents of Booul-gyeong said that more than half of them had heard of the term mega city (55.6%), but 77.5% gave a failing point (59.2% on the sidelines, 18.3% that it was not working well) for cooperation between regions. .
There was also a temperature difference between regions for the full integration of administrative districts. In Busan, 47.0% of respondents answered “necessary,” but 46.7% and 44.2% in Gyeongnam and Ulsan, respectively, replied “not necessary,” indicating that there is a constant resistance to chemical bonds between regions. Although the city’s ultimate goal is to integrate administrative agencies, there are many disagreements on its feasibility. For this reason, the idea is to establish a foundation for integration by forming a special local government (aka the Greater Alliance) to lead the transition period and promoting cooperation projects between regions.
※Southeastern Mega City
The idea is to respond to the chronic metropolitan unipolar system by creating a metropolitan area that is functionally connected to the administration and industry so that daily living is possible in major cities in the southeast region such as Busan, Changwon, and Ulsan.
Reporter Yu Jeong-hwan and Choi Seung-hee