President-elect Lee Myung-bak's transition committee is getting active in making Lee’s early campaign promise of a cross-country canal a reality. Committee members recently met CEOs of five major local builders, and in early February the committee will host a seminar under the co-sponsorship of state-run research institutes.
The president elect's cross-country canal project is a fait accompli and will start even before the general election on April 9, lawmaker Lee Jae-oh, a Lee Myung-bak loyalist, told the Chosun Ilbo on Tuesday. He confirmed that the project will start shortly after the president is sworn in on Feb. 25. Lawmaker Lee revealed a detailed timetable for the canal project, saying that the groundbreaking work for a Honam canal will begin at the Youngsan River in southwestern Korea in February 2009. The Honam canal is the first phase of the project along with a canal linking Seoul and Busan. Lawmaker Lee is an adviser to the task force overseeing the canal project at the transition committee.
The committee hosted a breakfast meeting for the CEOs of five major local builders on Dec. 28 to give them a detailed briefing on the cross-country canal project. It asked them to give positive thought to whether to join the project. The committee asked them to study the feasibility of the canal project "based on business principles, given that it is an investment project led by private businesses."
The CEOs were from Korea's five largest construction firms -- Daewoo Engineering and Construction, Samsung Corporation, GS Engineering & Construction, Daelim Industrial, and Lee's own old stomping ground Hyundai Engineering & Construction. The CEOs reportedly signaled their willingness to take part. One executive with a construction firm said, "Though nothing has materialized yet, we will give serious thought to the feasibility of the project if we are formally asked to."
Following the meeting, the Transition Committee will be briefed by officials from the Ministry of Construction and Transportation and the Ministry of Environment until next week. It will then host a seminar on the project under the co-sponsorship of the Korea Development Institute and the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements in early February. It will also have discussions with private and government canal experts from the Netherlands on ways to cooperate in the plan.
