Gyeonggi Province: "Claims of Plagiarism in Namyangju City's River and Valley Policies Are Meaningless"

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province stated that the initial implementation of the river and valley maintenance project is not important in response to Namyangju Mayor Jo Gwang-han's claim that Gyeonggi Province 'plagiarized' the policy.

Furthermore, they rebutted that what matters is that Gyeonggi Province expanded the river and valley maintenance project to all 31 cities and counties in the province, including Namyangju, achieving significant results.

A provincial official explained on the 7th, "The river and valley maintenance project for the 31 cities and counties in Gyeonggi Province was promoted under the directive of Governor Lee Jae-myung on September 8, 2018," adding, "Gyeonggi Province informed the residents of the achievements made by implementing the project across all cities and counties."

He continued, "Namyangju claims that Gyeonggi Province plagiarized the river and valley maintenance project policy, but this is a meaningless debate," asserting, "Namyangju is just Namyangju, and Gyeonggi Province, as a metropolitan government, is significant for being the first in the nation at the city and provincial level to promote such a project."

Additionally, he added, "Gyeonggi Province supported Namyangju with commendations and prize money of up to 30 million won in 2019 after Namyangju achieved results by promoting the maintenance project according to the plan starting in August 2018."

However, the official dismissed, "The various claims by the Namyangju mayor are merely his personal assertions, and simply comparing city administration with Gyeonggi's metropolitan administration is meaningless."

Earlier, on the 6th, Namyangju Mayor Jo Gwang-han, in a statement titled 'Position on Governor Lee Jae-myung's Policy Plagiarism,' said, "The river and valley maintenance project of Namyangju was mentioned during the Democratic Party presidential candidate primary TV debates on July 3 and July 5," and added, "Governor Lee Jae-myung's remarks during the debates risk distorting the facts, so I would like to explain in detail."

He further stated, "Since shortly after taking office in August 2018, we have been actively promoting illegal river maintenance and river purification projects," and expressed, "I cannot agree with Gyeonggi Province's behavior of turning our city's achievements into the governor's credit."

Mayor Jo also claimed, "The retaliatory audit against Namyangju started as a problem raised against such behavior."

Meanwhile, various suspicions have been raised against Namyangju City and Mayor Jo, including ▲ preferential treatment in the Yangjeong Station area development project ▲ unfair selection of operators for the art club competition ▲ violations of COVID-19 quarantine guidelines ▲ preferential treatment related to the purchase of public property ▲ controversies over the appropriateness of building permits (changes), among others.

In response, Gyeonggi Province initiated a special investigation targeting Namyangju City and its affiliated organizations. However, the conflict deepened as Namyangju City refused the audit.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.