photo = Yonhap News
The Korea Federation of Entrepreneurs analyzed that if the president’s office was relocated to the Yongsan Ministry of National Defense, it would generate 1.8 trillion won in tourism income every year. The economic circles see the FKI, which has suffered from ‘passing’ controversy throughout the Moon Jae-in administration, as an attempt to highlight its presence with the inauguration of the new government.
On the 30th, the Korea Economic Research Institute, affiliated with the Federation of Korean Industries, published a report entitled ‘Analysis of the Economic Effect of the Relocation of the President’s Office to Yongsan’ by Kim Hyun-seok, a professor of economics at Pusan National University. It is known that the report was not in the originally scheduled weekly reporting schedule and was only decided to be released on the 29th, a day before.
Professor Kim predicted that if the Blue House were fully opened to the public, the effect of attracting domestic and foreign tourists would be comparable to that of visitors after the restoration of Cheonggyecheon. Cheonggyecheon Stream was restored and opened to the public in October 2005. From 2005 to 2015, the number of visitors to Cheonggyecheon reached 17.4 million annually. Professor Kim estimated that with the full opening of the Blue House, 16.7 million domestic and foreign tourists (16.19 million domestic and 510,000 overseas) will visit annually, and tourism revenue will reach 1.8 trillion won.
It is explained that not only the scenery of the Blue House is beautiful, but it has special value because it is the place where successive presidents worked. Professor Kim explained that while considering the annual number of visitors to Cheonggyecheon as a standard, the net increase effect was estimated by subtracting the existing annual visits to the Blue House (690,000).
It is also analyzed that if the president’s office is moved to Yongsan to expand communication between the government and the public, mutual information exchange will be activated and the institutional trust will be enhanced, thereby increasing the efficiency of government policies.
Professor Kim estimated that the economic effect would reach from 1.2 trillion won to 3.3 trillion won based on GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 2020 as economic activities of economic actors are promoted by increasing public trust in the system. Professor Kim said, “The relocation of the presidential office needs to be viewed from the perspective of investment rather than cost.
Economic circles believe that the FKI has launched a ‘support fire’ for the relocation of President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol’s office to Yongsan. Since its establishment in 1961, the FKI played the role of the ‘eldest brother’ in the business world representing large corporations, but its status declined as it got embroiled in the National Nongdan incident in 2016. Other business groups refrained from making official comments about the FKI’s announcement today. However, an official said, “I thought it was too much to report on the announcement of the war.”
The FKI is wary of broad interpretations, saying that analysis of the economic effects of policy implementation has been frequently done so far. An official from the business community pointed out, “The business community can sufficiently analyze the economics of the election following the implementation of the promises,” but pointed out that “it is problematic to take a unilateral side on an issue that is aggravating controversy.”
Reporter Kang Kyung-min
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