South Korea Creates City Around Science and Education

South Korea's government announced a US$14.6 billion blueprint to develop a new city as a science and education hub, dropping controversial plans to move several ministries there.

The country's biggest business group Samsung has signed a deal to move some operations to Sejong City, along with the Hanwha, Woongjin and Lotte groups, said Prime Minister Chung Un-Chan.

“The government has decided to create an economic hub centered on education and science in Sejong City with public and private investments of 16.5 trillion won (US$14.6 billion) in total,” Chung said in a statement.

“We expect Sejong will grow into a self-sufficient city with a population of 500,000 with 246,000 new jobs by 2020.”