Heated Merger Discussions Among 'Suwon + Hwaseong + Osan'

The Ministry of Interior and Safety suggested on the 17th that the timing of hearing opinions from city councils regarding the integration of Suwon-Hwaseong-Osan could be delayed to early next year. What appeared to be the merger sentiment for Suwon-Hwaseong-Osan being derailed due to opposition from Hwaseong and Osan areas has recently gained momentum as residents from the previously silent eastern Hwaseong region have raised their voices again in support of integration.

Additionally, a new variable, the 'Hwaseong-Osan merger plan,' has emerged, creating a climate of delay in the opinion-hearing process. An official at the Ministry of Interior and Safety stated, "Since various discussions are being conducted in this region, we cannot reach conclusions immediately," and "No timing has been decided yet." The pro-merger sentiment that had been overshadowed by opposition voices from the Hwaseong and Osan areas is gradually gaining ground, marking a new phase in this matter. For a proper merger discussion among Suwon, Hwaseong, and Osan to proceed, analyses of the advantages and disadvantages of the merger and accurate views by city on the merger must be communicated to citizens. From this perspective, it is necessary to examine the positions of Suwon City, Hwaseong City, and Osan City on the merger.

The responses from Hwaseong Bongdam Apartment Complex Federation's inquiry to Suwon and Hwaseong cities regarding the 'views on the merger' are published in their original form. However, Hwaseong City substituted its response with a petition submitted to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, and Osan City conveyed its position of accepting the decision of the Osan City Council without presenting separate analysis materials or views.

◇ Suwon City's Position on Administrative Integration

● Merger as opportunity for growth into a world-class city

Suwon City agrees with the necessity of voluntary administrative integration of local governments to secure competitiveness among world cities being pursued by the government, and believes that the integration of Suwon, Hwaseong, and Osan cities, which have long formed a sense of administrative, cultural, and economic unity, is a good opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with world-renowned cities in the near future.

Regarding merger principles, the city believes that the decision on administrative integration, which is the foundation of the local autonomy system, should prioritize the opinions of residents of the three cities who are the principals of local autonomy and direct stakeholders. Above all, the merger must be for the overall benefit and development of residents of Suwon, Hwaseong, and Osan. However, not only the result of the merger is important; minimizing conflict between government and citizens, conflict between citizens, and conflicts between local governments that may arise in the implementation process is also very important. We would like to clarify several points regarding this.

First, this is not an absorption merger into Suwon City. Suwon City has superior infrastructure ranking first nationwide in various fields including education, administration, culture, environment, welfare, sports, and medical services, so Hwaseong and Osan citizens will share Suwon City's high-quality administrative services and social infrastructure.

Moreover, significant finances will be intensively invested in Hwaseong and Osan following administrative integration to construct social infrastructure at the level of Suwon City, so the benefits of the merger will accrue to Hwaseong and Osan citizens. This demonstrates that this administrative integration is not an absorption merger by Suwon City but a merger to strengthen mutual complementarity, development, and competitiveness of the three cities.

● 'NO!' to relocation or installation of nuisance facilities in Hwaseong-Osan

There is no need to relocate or install additional nuisance facilities. Suwon City already has sufficient capacity of infrastructure facilities including not only cultural facilities but also so-called nuisance facilities such as an incinerator (600 tons/day), food waste recycling facilities (composting facility 50 tons/day, feed production facility 100 tons/day), sewage treatment plants (520,000 tons/day of sewage, 450 tons/day of sludge), sanitary treatment plants (600㎘/day), and funeral culture facilities (9 crematoriums, 30,000 burial niches).

Conditions are in place for Hwaseong and Osan cities to utilize these facilities without additional installation, so upon integration, not only can facility usage fees be discounted, but construction and operational costs for new facilities can be reduced through shared use of facilities. For example, funeral facility usage fees (crematorium 1,000,000 won→100,000 won, memorial hall 1,000,000 won→300,000 won) will be reduced. The citizen taxes saved this way can be invested in projects essential for city development and social welfare sectors, bringing more benefits to citizens.

Taxes will not increase after the merger. There will be no tax increase for residents of counties and rural areas before integration, and the government's merger promotion policy is to establish separate provisions in relevant laws and ordinances to ensure no tax increase if necessary.

● Focused financial investment in Hwaseong and Osan

The speed of regional development in Hwaseong and Osan will accelerate. Following integration, finances are expected to be concentrated on Hwaseong and Osan, which require social infrastructure development, and by utilizing the 167.4 billion won in financial incentives provided by the Ministry of Interior and Safety for integrated cities as funding for ongoing regional development projects in Hwaseong and Osan, regional development speed is expected to accelerate.

Following integration, government support plans include guarantee of total intergovernmental transfer tax before merger for five years (152.4 billion won), expanded special transfer tax support (15 billion won), support for region-specific and strategic industry development, SOC expansion, preferential consideration for long-term lease industrial complexes, and priority selection for public design and cultural city development projects.

Children's educational environment will be significantly improved. Following integration, the scale of the education budget is expected to expand significantly, enabling comprehensive support to the education community and substantially improving children's educational environment. Hwaseong and Osan can share Suwon City's excellent educational systems including Suwon Foreign Language High School, International School, Suwon Arts High School (opened 2010), public libraries (9 locations), Happy Suwon English Village operations, Suwon Love Scholarship Foundation operations, citizen informatization education centers (20 locations), lifelong education facilities (153 facilities across 11 fields), and youth cultural facilities (4 locations), creating improved educational conditions.

Furthermore, the merged city will attract dormitory high schools, Meister high schools, and autonomous private high schools provided as incentives by the Ministry of Interior and Safety, emerging as a 'new educational hub' in southern Gyeonggi. Moreover, the merged city will also be given priority in recruitment of dormitory high schools, Meister high schools, and autonomous private high schools.

● Sharing of culture, sports, welfare, and transportation facilities

Becoming the hub for culture, sports, and welfare facilities. Suwon City is fully equipped with well-established culture and sports facilities where all citizens can enjoy cultural and leisure activities, with representative facilities including Gyeonggi Cultural House, Suwon Hwaseong Museum and Suwon Hwaseong Promotion Center, Suwon History Museum, Korean Calligraphy Art Museum, Saun Yi Jong-hak Historical Materials Museum, Suwon Art Gallery, First Outdoor Music Stage, Intangible Cultural Heritage Transmission Center, and Filial Piety Memorial Hall, allowing residents to share high-level cultural facilities.

Furthermore, there are many sports facilities including the World Cup Stadium and General Sports Complex as comprehensive sports facilities, as well as sports facilities installed in seven parks including Yeongheung Sports Park and sports facilities in seven reservoirs including Weoncheon Reservoir, so residents will enjoy benefits as a sports hub city. In particular, with perfectly established social welfare facilities in Suwon including 32 disability welfare facilities, 443 elderly welfare facilities, 833 child welfare facilities, 11 women's welfare facilities, and 695 childcare facilities, citizens of Hwaseong and Osan who face social difficulties can benefit from these facilities.

More convenient public transportation services will be provided. Some regions of Hwaseong City far from Suwon will be included in Suwon-based bus operation zones, and improved public transportation services will be provided through improvements to the bus route system. At the public hearing for the Suwon Urban Railway Master Plan promoted by Suwon City on the 12th of last month, there was an opinion advocating for a light rail project covering outer circular routes encompassing the Hwaseong-Osan areas including Dongtan, Bongdam, Balan, and Osan. Taxi fares will be unified and congestion charges will be eliminated, reducing public transportation fares. (Taxi rate increase rate 20%, basic fare standard 2,760 won→2,300 won)

● Discussion of merged city name and city hall location to be decided by designated organization

Additionally, when Suwon, Hwaseong, and Osan integrate, the merged city will have a population of 1.75 million and an area of 852㎢, surpassing Ulsan Metropolitan City (1.13 million), Gwangju Metropolitan City (1.44 million), and Daejeon Metropolitan City (1.50 million), resulting in an elevation of the status of the merged city and a corresponding enhancement in the status of local citizens. Current residents can directly benefit from preferential supply allocations when Suwon City develops and subdivides the Gwanggyo New Town, Homae-sil District, Sindong Subdivision District, and Gwonseon District, and property value appreciation is also expected due to the influence of Suwon city brand value.

Following integration, promotion of inter-industry convergence and growth of industrial clusters with global-level competitiveness, along with linkages of regional resources such as marine leisure, culture, and tourism are expected to promote employment and revitalize the local economy.

The name of the merged local government and the location of the city hall will be discussed and decided by the 'Merger Promotion Committee' in which representatives of each local government participate in equal numbers after the administrative integration is decided, and this is not a matter to be decided by local governments at the pre-integration stage. Since administrative integration is being pursued for regional development and the interests of residents, current agenda projects being pursued in the region will continue to be pursued after integration.

◇ Hwaseong City's Position on Administrative Integration

● Pro and con opinions sharply confronted, causing conflict

Currently, the administrative boundary reorganization being pursued by the Ministry of Interior and Safety is proceeding with the integration of Suwon-Hwaseong-Osan based on unilateral requests from Suwon City regardless of the will of Hwaseong citizens. Accordingly, pro and con opinions on merger among cities and among local residents are sharply confronted, causing severe conflict.

This conflict can be attributed to the central government proceeding with merger while pursuing insufficient discussion and consensus-building, failing to consider local sentiments and conditions, and disregarding residents' opinions. Therefore, the merger between Hwaseong City, which has abundant autonomous capacity and infinite development potential, and Suwon-Osan should be reconsidered.

First, it does not align with the integration objectives and purposes of the central government (Ministry of Interior and Safety). Suwon-Hwaseong-Osan was not originally a target for integration by the Ministry of Interior and Safety. The government's purpose for local government integration is to secure national competitiveness through enhanced competitiveness of local governments, and according to the Ministry of Interior and Safety's 'Voluntary Integration Support Plan for Local Governments,' target local governments for integration consideration are ① local governments requiring expansion of growth foundations and ② local governments with small populations and areas (however, Hwaseong-Osan integration was included), and specific examples of cities and counties by type were presented, but Suwon-Hwaseong-Osan does not fall under any of these types.

● Unwilling to be forcibly merged arbitrarily

Additionally, this is unilateral forced integration, not voluntary integration. According to the original plan of the Ministry of Interior and Safety, integration would be pursued only for 'regions that voluntarily wish to integrate.' However, the current administrative integration is proceeding through unilateral proposals by Suwon City. However, integration among local governments requires essential in-depth review through sufficient deliberation and discussion between citizens and each local government on the advantages and disadvantages over a long period, and only then can conflicts between residents be resolved.

There are problems with the public opinion survey methodology. The merger issue of local governments is quite important as a local resident and directly related to living areas. However, the 1,000 respondents surveyed lack representativeness, and there are multiple problems with survey methodology including the selection of the survey organization and the selection of survey sample areas. At minimum, before conducting the survey, the survey methodology should have been sufficiently discussed with the relevant local government or local residents and conducted objectively and transparently.

● Merger would actually result in administrative inefficiency

The merger of Suwon-Hwaseong-Osan is inefficient. The purposes of this proposed administrative integration are ① enhancement of autonomous capacity and self-reliant foundation of local governments ② improvement of efficiency in local government operations ③ resolution of inconsistency between living and economic zones and administrative boundaries. However, when the three cities combine, the area becomes 1.7 times that of Seoul, the population reaches 1.8 million, exceeding Gwangju, Daejeon, and Ulsan Metropolitan Cities, and with significant financial scale, this would exceed the limits of local governments based on minimum resident opinion collection and reflection, resulting not only in administrative inefficiency but also potential damage to the original purpose of local autonomy.

In particular, looking only at Hwaseong City, it has competitiveness including: continuous population increase ranking first nationwide over the past three years (12.6% annually, 485,426 as of November), highest business increase rate nationwide (15.5% annually, 12,000 businesses), top GRDP in the province, vast administrative area (844㎢, 1.4 times Seoul City), fastest urban growth speed nationwide (National Institute for Regional Competitiveness Research), and most vibrant city nationwide (Housing and Urban Research Institute). In the future, with rapid development by region such as 2012 population reaching 70-80 million, opening of Dongtan 2, Songsan Green City, and USKR, the city is expected to exceed 1 million population by 2015 and develop into a city with international competitiveness, entering the world's top 25 cities by 2025.

● Independent growth possible, merger should be reconsidered

All administrative capabilities of Hwaseong City are directed at addressing current issues for residents. Hwaseong City currently has all administrative capabilities focused on addressing current issues for residents due to the pursuit of various large-scale development projects, and after the announcement of a public opinion survey on administrative system reorganization, the very discussion of merger itself has materialized region-to-region and citizen-to-citizen conflicts, placing the city in a very difficult position. Now is the time for Hwaseong City to dedicate itself to promoting various development projects for Hwaseong City's future development and further development of Gyeonggi Province and the nation, and this time will not come again.

The municipal integration being pursued by the current central government targets regions with weak autonomous competitiveness or areas with small populations and sizes that restrict the role as local governments. However, Suwon City already has a population of 1.1 million and is a local government with considerable fiscal superiority. Additionally, Hwaseong City currently has an area 1.4 times that of Seoul City, a population of 500,000, and through various residential developments will reach a population of 1 million by 2015, making it a massive local government. Therefore, since Hwaseong City's merger, which has more predictable future and abundant development potential than the present, does not align with the government's intentions in many respects, the merger push should be halted at this point to prevent further conflicts between regions and residents.