The government’s plan to relocate hundreds of public institutions outside the Seoul metropolitan area is gaining ground with President Lee Jae Myung throwing his support behind it, intensifying competition among municipalities seeking to host major organizations. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is drawing up a road map for the second round of relocations, reviewing roughly 350 institutions and their affiliates currently based in the capital region. The plan comes after the first round of relocations was completed in 2019. It could be outlined this month or by September at the latest, according to Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yoon-duk. He added that the road map would then be reported to the president. The relocation drive gained further momentum from Lee’s repeated calls to group institutions in related sectors within the same regions. “Balanced regional development is a matter of national survival, so we cannot approach it by simply scattering institutions around,” Lee said in March. At a nationally televised news conference marking his fi