“Bringing happiness
and convenience to your daily life!”
Transport matters because it deals with everybody’s everyday economic activities.
People’s economic activities happen across the borders of urban areas and the geography of the region as a whole is being enlarged. Now the region is considered as the most important ingredient in deciding country’s competitiveness. Korea also has been making great investments in the transportation sector to support economic development. However, administrative and actual economic boundaries mismatched and the transport investment has not been sufficiently provided across the metropolitan areas that goes beyond individual administrative borders. Some key projects in this field were delayed due to difficulties in reaching consensus among relevant local authorities. As a result, painful discomfort due to transportation disconnection has arisen and sometimes it becomes the cause of regional conflict.
As the fourth Chairperson of the Metropolitan Transport Commission, I plan to fulfill my duties by focusing on the three following objectives, with the aim of establishing the Commission as the administrative organization for metropolitan transport of Korea. First, I will make my utmost efforts to reduce painful inconveniences felt by the public during commuting. Creating metropolitan transport networks with diverse means of transportation and connecting them for efficient operations will contribute to reducing commuting time. Core transport networks, including intercity railways and BRTs, will be built promptly, and a denser network of metropolitan transport will be established through continuous expansion of transit centers at transportation nodes. Second, I will identify new agendas related to the field of metropolitan transport and apply them in metropolitan areas. In addition, I will carry out policies which would positively impact people’s lives, such as introducing a BRT system that is faster and more convenient than the conventional BRT, and also launching the Wide Area Metropolitan Transport Card nationwide to reduce people’s burden of transportation cost. Third, I will resolve conflicts between and/or among (local) governments. Listening diverse opinions of all stakeholders in relevant regions and the fields, I will create more smarter transport governance system where local authorities and the central government can participate, so that the voices from the regions will be fully heard and respected in decision making processes. For better lives of the people, the Metropolitan Transport Commission, will spare no effort in making improvements that can be felt by the public.
