In the last century, many countries moved their capitals mainly for political reasons. For example, in 1927, Australia moved its capital from Melbourne to Canberra to resolve the conflicts between states over the capital.
Since the beginning of the new century, all countries that have achieved political stability have focused on economic development, so the economic impact has been considered more when moving the capital in the new century.
Moving the capital: an effective measure to solve the capital disease
For example, the population around Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is as high as 22 million, accounting for nearly half of South Korea's population. The urbanization problems such as environmental pollution and high prices derived from such high population density also restrict the development of cities in other regions.
In this case, there are two most direct solutions. One is urban planning and governance, which is the most common measure and often requires a lot of time, material resources and financial resources.
The other is more direct: moving the capital and moving the national capital to other areas, which is also the choice for South Korea to govern Seoul.
Moving the capital can transfer the national economic and political center, effectively alleviate the urban problems of the old capital, promote the economic development of the new region, and thus solve the problem of unbalanced regional development.
As one of the few developed countries in Asia, South Korea raised the issue of moving the capital as early as 2002, but it has not been successful so far.
Pluralistic and Deep Thinking on South Korea's Capital Relocation
What kind of consideration did South Korea propose to move the capital?
First of all, it is natural that there have been a series of "urban diseases" in Seoul. The most important thing for a city is sustainable development. If we expand the city by overdrawing the development potential of the city, it is undoubtedly not worth the loss.
There are about 3 million cars in Seoul, but they are distributed on only 605 square kilometers of land. The resulting exhaust emissions, traffic jams and noise have aggravated the deterioration of the living environment in Seoul.
Seoul has dozens of top international universities such as Seoul National University and Hanyang University, attracting young people. Coupled with the unemployed population attracted by highly developed industries, the expansion rate of Seoul has been difficult to control.
Faced with such a severe situation, South Korea needs new cities to disperse Seoul's urban functions, and moving the capital naturally becomes the first choice to solve the problem.
South Korea had already considered moving its capital as early as the beginning of the 20th century. In February 2003, the South Korean National Assembly passed the Special Law on the New Administrative Capital, which provided legal protection for South Korea to move its capital.
In addition, South Korea's move to the capital also took into account the security of the capital. Seoul is located in the middle of the Korean peninsula, and the Han River passes through the city, only 40 kilometers away from the 38th parallel.
The two countries have been in a state of confrontation for a long time. Seoul is so close to North Korea that it has been under the threat of North Korea, which is extremely unfavorable to the security and protection of the capital.
Various problems in the northern region have also made the situation on the entire peninsula extremely tense. The disputes between the United States and South Korea over the nuclear issue, missile tests and joint military exercises have strained relations between the ROK and the DPRK.
Since the end of the Korean War 1953, the two countries have been in a state of cold war, not only economically isolated, politically opposed, but also militarily confronted for a long time. Therefore, the problems left over from history also make South Korea have to guard against North Korea at all times.
Recently, the United States adjusted the strategy of the US military stationed in South Korea, and the US military moved from Seoul to the hinterland of South Korea. Seoul lacks defense lines. Once there is a problem, Seoul will naturally bear the brunt. Measures must be taken to improve the safety index of the capital.
Finally, moving the capital to Seoul also considered promoting the balanced development of the national economy and alleviating regional development differences.
Seoul economic circle accounts for nearly 70% of South Korea's GDP, while the economic and social development in other regions is really lacking. If this continues, the overall development of the country will gradually become deformed.
In order to control this imbalance, we must fundamentally adjust the capital circle. Of course, under the current development situation in Seoul, it is unrealistic to completely transfer to the national center.
South Korea's capital relocation plan also separates the functions of the old and new capitals. Seoul retains its economic functions, while Xindu mainly undertakes the transfer of administrative functions. This will not only ensure that Seoul still maintains the road of economic development, but also reduce the country's excessive dependence on Seoul.
In order to alleviate the "polarization" of South Korea's economy, the South Korean National Assembly has formulated and passed three special laws on the balanced development of the country, including the Special Law on the New Administrative Capital, the Special Law on the Balanced Development of the State and the Special Law on Decentralization.
These three laws provide a legal basis for the transformation of South Korea's economic development model, which can effectively cooperate with the relocation of the administrative capital, rationally distribute the power of the central and local governments, and strengthen the coordination of power.
New Capital: The Rapid Rise of Sejong City
Then, in order to accomplish such an arduous task and achieve the original lofty goal, it is extremely important for South Korea to choose a new capital. If the new capital can't cooperate with the transfer of Seoul's functions well, the efforts to move the capital will be ineffective.
The original new capital of South Korea is Yanqi-Zhougong, which is the border between Yanqi County and Zhougong City. This area has won four candidate addresses by virtue of its convenient transportation advantages and a large number of undeveloped land and water resources.
However, the huge amount of money needed to move the capital intensified the voice of opponents. The preliminary estimate is about 45 trillion won, of which 34 trillion won needs to be raised from the private sector.
How does the Korean government raise enough money from the people's opponents? In the case of split public opinion and constant controversy, Congress finally rejected the plan and turned to Sejong City.
Sejong is the temple name of Li Jue, the fourth generation Sejong king of the Korean dynasty. Sejong was chosen as his name because of his great contribution to the Korean nation, so he won people's respect and has profound cultural significance.
Sejong City is located about120km south of Seoul. Construction began in 2007, and it took five years to complete the construction of the city, and began to live in the population and assume functions. In just five years, South Korea has built a big city, hoping to be juxtaposed with Seoul and Busan in the future.
Sejong, as a newly-built administrative capital, has absorbed the disadvantages and lessons of Seoul's development, and has been striving to build a green city with a good ecological environment, strengthen the efficiency of public transportation and share the pressure of private cars.
At the same time, Sejong City is also committed to improving the education level, strengthening and improving the higher education environment and building a famous cultural city. In order to continue the historical culture and traditional connotation, Sejong City holds cultural activities such as Sejong Celebrations every year, and builds Sejong City Culture and Art Museum, National Sejong City Library and other buildings.
It can be said that Sejong City bears all the expectations of South Korea for a new capital, and South Korea is striving to build a new era new city different from Seoul.
This process is full of criticism, and it is difficult to complete the relocation of the capital.
However, the construction of Sejong City was controversial from the beginning, especially the Grand National Party, which was the main reason why it was difficult to complete the relocation of the capital.
In the 2007 presidential election, Lee Myung-bak said that he would continue to move the capital, so he won a lot of support and successfully ran for public office. However, after he took office, he repeatedly indicated his intention to give up the original plan. Two years later, Zheng Yuncan and Lee Myung-bak, who changed from an economist to a prime minister, constantly improved and improved the original plan to move the capital.
However, the plan of Lee Myung-bak's government has gradually surpassed the simple "improvement" and even completely denied the original case, and it is necessary to separate the construction of Sejong City from the plan to move the capital.
Therefore, the newly revised planning will bring great changes to the construction of Sejong City, and the infrastructure already invested and the land voluntarily sold by the people at low prices will also be in an embarrassing situation.
People were originally prepared to witness a brand-new capital, and the cancellation of the original plan was really a heavy blow to them.
The opposition party seized the opportunity to unite the people and some ruling party members to lash out at Lee Myung-bak in an attempt to shake the government's credibility. There are factions headed by park geun-hye, who advocate maintaining the original plan. This struggle has quickly surpassed the significance of establishing the capital and has been deeply influenced by the domestic party struggle. Different programs represent different positions.
In the end, Lee Myung-bak insisted on his own plan, canceled the original plan to build a new administrative capital city, and wanted to build Sejong into an economic center city centered on science, technology and education.
However, many government departments such as the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Finance have completed the relocation to Sejong City. Cheongwadae's Presidential Palace, National Assembly and other departments remain in Seoul.
In a sense, this is just a compromise, and it can't solve the problem well.
This is undoubtedly inappropriate. Although it seems to distract the pressure from the functions of Seoul government departments, in fact, the relations between these departments are close, and government officials have to move between the two governments for work, which leads to low administrative efficiency and low enthusiasm.
In addition, if Sejong is really turned into a new capital centered on administrative functions in the future, it will lack economic development potential and can only rely on the government's financial supply as economic support.
Without a clear goal of economic orientation, there will be no subsidy policy for economic development of enterprises. This is undoubtedly unreasonable. A healthy city must be able to form a good development cycle by itself, instead of always relying on government blood transfusion.
Therefore, a simple administrative relocation of the capital can not effectively attract enterprises to settle in, and without economic support, urban development will also be in trouble.
For this reason, part of Lee Myung-bak's government advocates transforming Sejong City from a new capital with political functions into a self-sufficient comprehensive city.
Moving the capital is a long process, which often requires a lot of materials and financial resources. After decades of continuous development, it is necessary to improve the integration.
From the idea of moving the capital put forward by South Korea in the 1970s to its implementation since the 20th century, the plan of moving the capital has always been difficult to complete due to economic, political, public opinion and other factors.
In the end, Sejong not only undertook the initial goal of moving the capital, but also shouldered the expectation of developing into a brand-new economic and cultural city.
Get enough attention, but also bear a major mission.
At present, Sejong City has a population of 340,000, and its GDP ranks in the top 20 in Koreatown, but it is far from enough to grow into a city on an equal footing with Seoul.
The difference between Sejong City and other cities in South Korea is that Sejong City has not experienced a period of free and barbaric growth, but has been built in an orderly manner through various orderly planning rehearsals.
This is also a big advantage of building a new city, because the division of labor is clear and the layout is reasonable, which can effectively avoid many development problems in urban development.
Beijing, the capital of China, also has many urbanization problems. In order to alleviate urban diseases, China adopted the strategy of building "xiong'an new area". Different from the construction of Sejong, xiong'an new area undertakes the non-capital function of Beijing.
It can be seen that under different national conditions, even in the face of similar problems, the measures taken are not the same. This also reminds us that we must solve problems in combination with reality and not blindly copy them.
The construction of Sejong City is also a prudent measure after careful consideration by South Korea, and the development of Sejong City now also confirms the correctness and deficiency of this decision.
In 20 18, Sejong's per capita income was 206 10000 won, while the national average was 1989000 won and Seoul was 23.26 million won.
It can be seen that the economic development level of Sejong City is not low. Although there is still a long way to go from Seoul, as an emerging city in south-central China, this achievement is also remarkable.
The average age of Sejong population is about 36 years old. Compared with Seoul's 4 1 year-old, Sejong is more youthful and energetic, which can better reflect the future development of an international city in the new era.
The construction of Sejong City has also attracted many well-known enterprises and universities to settle in, providing important support for building a scientific and technological economic city.
For example, in 20 17, Hanwha Energy's headquarters moved from Seoul to Sejong New City, and NAVER's cloud data center was also determined to be in the cutting-edge industrial park of Sejong New City. All these make Sejong's future more than just a shared city of Seoul's political function.
In addition, Sejong City also has famous schools such as Korea University and Hannan University, which provide a steady stream of talent motivation for the development of Sejong City.
Sejong City has not become the second Seoul since its completion.
This vibrant new city, together with Seoul, has become the two major capitals of South Korea, providing strong support and guarantee for the balanced development of the whole country.