[Anchor]
The government's latest plan for the relocation of public institutions also includes a sweeping reform to cut about 20% of public institutions, or 109 in total. Five power generation-related companies and four port authorities will be merged into single entities respectively, while LH (Korea Land and Housing Corporation) will be split into two organizations according to their functions.
Reporter Baegun has the details.
[Reporter]
The government announced that it will integrate the five power generation companies—which were separated from KEPCO back in 2001—into a tentatively named "Korea Power Generation" 25 years later.
Privatization, the original goal of the split, fell through long ago, and the government judged that overlapping investments in research and development and renewable energy projects have instead caused inefficiency.
[Huh Jang / Vice Minister of Economy and Finance: By integrating the five power generation companies into one, we aim to achieve a major energy transition centered on renewable energy.]
The four port authorities scattered across Busan, Incheon, Ulsan, and Yeosu-Gwangyang, which perform identical tasks, will also be merged into a tentatively named "Korea Port Authority," while the Korea National Oil Corporation and Korea Gas Corporation will be integrated into a tentatively named "Energy and Resources Corporation."
The plan is to scale up their size to enhance supply chain crisis response capabilities and external negotiating power.
LH will be split into two organizations.
The Housing and Urban Development Corporation will take charge of land development and housing construction, while the Housing and Urban Asset Corporation will handle residential welfare, including rental housing projects.
Having the development sector—where speed and financial performance are crucial—and the residential welfare function—which emphasizes public utility—under one roof has delayed housing supply and increased the burden of operating rental housing.
The public sector reform will reduce the number of institutions by a total of 109.
Labor circles criticized that the restructuring was pushed forward without sufficient verification and public debate, excluding workers and users.
[Kang Sung-gyu / Vice President, Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union: A plan hatched behind closed doors is being passed by rubber-stamp methods and announced as a government reform. They must admit that it did not go through sufficient labor-government consultations and social discussions.]
The government stated that it will guarantee job succession for employees and ensure their treatment is not lowered. However, since some consolidations and mergers require revisions to relevant laws and labor-government consultations remain, considerable friction is expected.
(Video by Cho Choon-dong, Kim Heung-ki | Video Editing by Kim Jong-mi | Design by Hwang Se-yeon)
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