Considering the public criticism of the "hollowing of the metropolitan area" following the transfer of the administrative capital, the government has decided to selectively permit conglomerates to establish factories of cutting-edge industries. The government has also decided to develop Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and the so-called national gateway, Incheon, respectively into the financial and international business center of Northeast Asia, a Mecca of cutting-edge industries second only to Silicon Valley, and the center of logistics and business in Northeast Asia like Shanghai's Pudong.

The Committee of Balanced National Development (CBND), which is under direct control of the President, and the Ministry of Construction and Transportation announced the ¡°Plan of Establishing Innovative Cities and Developing a New Capital Region¡± on Tuesday outlining the above. Some experts point out that this policy lacks efficacy because the plan had already been adopted several times by the Kim Dae-jung administration, and it lacks concrete promotion plans such as a fund raising plan.

The government has decided to partially relieve the regulations in Seoul metropolitan region from the next year. It has arranged to develop Suwon, where the factories of Samsung Electronics are located, Paju, where the factories of LG-Philips LCD are placed, and Ansan, Banwol and Sihwa Industry complexes, respectively into digital-electronics, LCD, and parts-materials clusters. In Seoul, the downtown area, Yongsan, and Sangam districts will be developed into international business districts, Gangnam district into an international conference and convention district, and Yeouido districts into an international financial center as well. The establishment of factories in the Seoul Metropolitan area by conglomerates, which has been strictly banned so far, would be selectively permitted through close inspection and confined only to cutting-edge industries.

As for this policy, some experts have pointed out that it could become a meaningless rehash of the previously announced plans. ¡°The intentions of developing the Seoul metropolitan area and the provincial areas at the same time lack the strategy of selection and concentration,¡± said a professor of Seoul National University, Choi Mak-jung, adding, ¡°It gives an impression that the policy was set up hurriedly in consideration of criticism against the administrational capital movement.¡±