For the first time in many years, the national budget for the fiscal 2016 contains no spending plan for any mega-scale infrastructure project. The Park Geun-hye government’s budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly show piecemeal increases in expenditures for welfare, education, defense and “creative economy.”

Successive administrations in the past spent a lot of money on the construction of high-speed railways, establishment of a wholly new administrative city, relocation of major public organizations, and utilization of the nation’s four longest rivers. Kim Young-sam started the KTX bullet train project, Kim Dae-jung struggled for recovery from the so-called “IMF bailout crisis,” Roh Moo-hyun pushed regional distribution of state functions and Lee Myung-bak dredged the Hangang, Nakdonggang, Geumgang and Yeongsangang Rivers.

Coincidentally, the three recent major projects cost about the same: the Seoul-Busan KTX was billed at 21 trillion won; the Sejong Administrative City 22 trillion won; and the Four-River Refurbishment 22 trillion won. Perhaps that is the maximum amount of money the nation can provide for such multiyear projects. Beside the financial burden, bitter political rows over their motivations and necessity stirred the nation.

Twenty trillion won is a lot of money. By simple arithmetic, every citizen of this country should chip in 20,000 won (about $18) to raise 1 trillion won, or 100,000 won per five-member family. To finance the KTX, Sejong City and the four-river project, the good citizens of the Republic of Korea paid about 430,000 won each, translating to 1.3 million won in individual contributions for all three mega projects. A four- or five-person family would have borne over 5 million won during the project period.

Of course, large companies and the wealthy pay far higher taxes than ordinary people and the state itself makes money through the operation of public enterprises (although we know most of them are perennially in the red). Yet, their incomes depend much on individual consumption, so evenly dividing the project cost by the number of population has its justification.

I have not had many opportunities to use the KTX, but my few experiences with its comfortable ride allowed me to appreciate what tax money did to “upgrade” our lifestyle, particularly with the 30 percent discount for the elderly on weekdays. It is only this year that all planned branch lines were put into operation, and authoritative researchers will soon be able to make strict assessments of the economic effects the high-speed railways have in this country.

Sejong City is said to be 90 percent complete. Of the total 16,000 employees in some 50 state organizations assigned to the administrative city, about 90 percent have moved into the residential zones as of the end of August. Sejong City’s population has grown to 190,000 with the speedy influx of people engaged in various service businesses. The new town is projected to have a population of 400,000 by 2020.

When I visited the city on private business last week, I felt like I was catapulted a couple of decades into the future. Fifteen central government buildings linked with each other by “skywalk” bridges to form a huge circle in the shape of a dragon poised to fly – as explained by a volunteer guide – comprise the main complex. A man-made lake, reputedly the largest in the nation (excluding reservoirs) graces a zone of office blocks, which still has empty plots of land and tower cranes at work.

Shapely apartment buildings are connected by overpasses to minimize pedestrians’ crossing car lanes. City designers built roads in the residential and commercial zones in curved lines to create a rustic atmosphere and force drivers to slow down. Garbage drop boxes for recyclable and nonrecyclable materials standing at street corners send separated articles to treatment centers via underground air chute systems.

The vast plain of the former Yeongi and Gongju counties has turned into the main seat of government after several years of costly construction. As a result, government functions are divided into four locations – Seoul, Gwacheon, Daejeon and Sejong City. As long as the Blue House and the National Assembly remain in Seoul – the eternal capital city of Korea under unwritten Constitution as defined by the Constitutional Court in 2004 – physical and mental waste will continue in the nation’s bureaucracy. 

On the other hand, advanced urban hardware offering plenty of convenience is attracting retirees from Daejeon and elsewhere. KTX trains pass Osong Station, 18 kilometers from the government complex. The Geumgang River skirting the new city has all the new refurbishments along both banks, including riverside parks and the paved bike routes. Thus, whoever chooses to reside in or around Sejong City doubly owe their modernized living to all other fellow countrymen who paid so generously to make possible what they enjoy.

As for the four-river project, the two years following its completion are still not long enough to make a comprehensive appraisal of its contributions and drawbacks. This year saw the worst drought in years across the nation, and proponents of the river project claim that the country’s farms evaded devastation with the increased volume of water preserved by the major rivers, while critics pointed to the contamination of river water by widespread green algae, which they attributed to dykes built as part of the river project.

Having watched and been involved in the political disputes over the major infrastructure projects undertaken by the past administrations, President Park chose, quite laudably, not to initiate any signature project of her own, but is concentrating on the “creative economy” and youth employment. Yet, with half of her tenure passed, people only vaguely understand what she meant by the term “creative,” and the plan still lacks a concrete vision.

Regardless, the government will spend nearly 387 trillion won next year depending on how the parties haggle over detailed expenditure plans. The citizens of Korea will have to share about a quarter (24.9 percent) of their gross domestic product in various taxes to let the government run the state. We just pray that our elected officials and bureaucrats will spend the tax money for worthy causes with minimum waste, aware of how much it means to each taxpayer.

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. -- Ed.