[Editorial] Pledges to provinces

In the heat of campaigning, those running for public office and their parties commit themselves to locally demanded big-ticket projects. Their ballpark cost estimates, some of them as large as trillions of won, are not much of their concern. To the candidates and their parties, winning the elections is the overriding goal.

It was the same with Park Geun-hye and her defeated rival, Moon Jae-in, during the run-up to the December presidential election. They attempted to upstage each other in making promises to build airports, railroads and expressways, and launch other costly projects.

A case in point was a new airport in the southeastern region of the nation ― a 10-trillion-won project Lee Myung-bak had promised when he ran for the presidency in 2007 and scrapped after he won. A feasibility study had concluded the proposed airport would sustain heavy losses.

Blinded by their desire to win the election, both Park and Moon paid little attention to the feasibility study and committed themselves to the airport construction. Of course, their parties endorsed their election promises.

Now, President Park is left holding the bag. She will have to decide whether to go ahead with the airport, despite anticipated enormous losses, or scrap the project as her immediate predecessor did ― and, by doing so, expose herself to the risk of being denounced by the provincial electorate for not being trustworthy.

Still worse, the airport is only one of the 96 new projects President Park promised to launch during the next five years of her governance. Her administration also needs to continue to finance the 71 ongoing projects as well. Their total costs are roughly estimated at 124 trillion won.

On Friday, the Park administration announced its plan on the 167 projects. It said the projects will be financed by the central government, provincial governments and the private sector.

The administration said it will faithfully carry out the new projects, which are estimated at 84 trillion won, after conducting feasibility studies. This seemingly innocuous statement, however, left many scratching their heads and wondering where the administration was putting its emphasis ― on being faithful to the election promises or on conducting feasibility studies.

Provincial governments are already voicing complaints about the central government’s pledge to conduct preliminary feasibility studies. Among them is not just the Daegu metropolitan government, which is pushing for the airport, but the Gangwon provincial government, which has long demanded an express railway be built to link Seoul and the east coast.

The Gangwon provincial government has good reason to worry about Park’s election promise to build an express railway: A previous feasibility study already concluded the project would be a money-loser.

With the next local elections scheduled for June 2014, Gangwon and other provincial governments will undoubtedly keep pressuring the Park administration to make good on her election promises. But a responsible administration would not spend taxpayers’ money on projects that would incur heavy losses.