South Korea Will Build Sustainable City of Tech and Learning by 2020
Just like that, Abu Dhabi's Masdar City has some competition. On Monday, South Korean officials announced a $14.6 billion plan for a new self-sufficient city, high-tech hub of education and commerce that will be home to some of Korea's biggest corporate names and centers of higher learning. The so-called Sejong City -- sometimes called by its official name, the Multifunctional Administrative City (MAC) -- aims to create a brand new, 21st century city in Chungcheong Province about 100 miles due south of Seoul by 2020. The MAC was slated in 2005 to develop into a built-from-scratch city housing nine government ministries and four public agencies (the idea was even floated that it might serve as the capital of a unified Korean state). But as the plan bounced around the bureaucracy, it became apparent to the sitting government that the plan was inefficient from both administrative and economic standpoints. So the scheme...