An Underrated all-time Tax Scam Case...jpg
원본 (Korean)
Translation + Context
FT = ForbiddenTome — tap to see Korean slang explained

[Back to the Day] "Let's Revive Daegu's Textile Industry" 1990s Milano Project - Reporter Yoon Young-gyun | Input 2025-06-01 10:00:00 | Views 203
"Let's Revive Daegu's Textile Industry - 1990s Milano Project. Since way back, Daegu had a reputation as a city with lots of 'beauties,' and this was closely connected to the development of the textile industry. It meant there were many women wearing stylish clothes. But as time passed, the textile industry began to decline"

[Edit]
2.1. Progress Status
In Phase 1, from 1998 to 2003, a massive 680 billion won (national budget 376 billion won, local budget 51.5 billion won, private investment 261.5 billion won) in taxpayer money was poured into projects to revive the textile industry.
Phase 2 was carried out from 2004 to 2006 with 198 billion won in taxpayer money invested.
Phase 3 was launched from 2008 onwards. A budget of 40 billion won was allocated.

Daegu's Sister Cities
Daegu has formed sister city relationships with various cities in different countries around the world, and mutually
> Italy Milan (Milan) Italy's second largest city and transportation hub) City of alcohol ● Population 1.66 million · Established December 14, 1998

3. Results
In 2005, the Board of Audit and Inspection notified on the 31st of last month that regarding the Fashion Apparel Valley project—the core of the so-called 'Milan Project' that Daegu City had been pushing forward for textile industry promotion—they should "carefully analyze the feasibility and comprehensively reexamine whether to proceed with the project." As of the end of August 2004, five years after the project started, the progress rate was only 18%.
The Korea Development Institute (KDI) and Industrial Research Institute evaluated in their 'Assessment of Four Major Regional Revitalization Projects and Research on Basic Directions for Follow-up Projects' that "the project to create a Fashion Apparel Valley has very low feasibility." They pointed out that there were too few sewing factories in the Daegu region, making it impossible not only to attract foreign companies but also to attract domestic non-Daegu companies.
And due to various misconduct, funds got embezzled, the mayor got arrested, and plans to attract large corporations ended up failing.

Eventually, Daegu's population started falling behind Incheon, and the city fell to the rank of the 4th largest city in the country. The only thing we managed to save was the textile industrial complex, Asia Polis. Asia Polis is home to the Korean Fiber Development Research Institute, Dyetex Research Institute, and the Korean Fashion Industry Research Institute, but since the 2010s, it's been criticized for budget shortages and poor management.

Daegu - Milan Sister City Relationship for 15 Years... Turns Out It Was One-Sided
Kim Sung-soo | Input 2013-01-08 07:53 | Modified 2013-01-08 17:25 | Published 2013-01-08 Page 1
Milan Side Strongly Denies... Difference in Interpretation of Joint Declaration at the Time, Only Daegu Promoted as "Sister City"
Italian city of Milan, which had been known as a sister city of Daegu through the "Milano Project" (plan to foster Daegu-Gyeongbuk textile industry), has shocked everyone by stating "Daegu is not our sister city."
On the 7th, Daegu announced: "In December 2011, when we inquired with Milan about maintaining sister city relations as part of a check-up on sister and friendly cities, we received a notification from Milan that they did not receive parliamentary approval, and that Daegu is not a sister city of Milan."

In the 1990s, Daegu City aggressively pursued a plan to benchmark Milan, the epicenter of global fashion at the time.
Thus, the 'Milan Project' was launched.
From 1998 to 2003: 680 billion won
Phase 2: 198 billion won
Phase 3: 40 billion won
Starting from the 90s, the total accumulated investment reached 1.018 trillion won.
When adjusted for inflation, this easily crossed several trillion won—a genuinely mega-scale project.
With such an enormous budget being poured in,
Milan and Daegu even established a sister city relationship, which was notable enough to be included in textbooks.
But despite the massive tax injection, by 2004 the project completion rate was only 18%.
The chairman was arrested for various fraud charges, and recruitment of major corporations failed.
Ultimately, due to various scandals and dismal progress, the Milan Project completely fell apart.
And then, 15 years later, the actual truth came out.
The Milan-Daegu sister city relationship featured in textbooks was completely fake.
It was purely Daegu's one-sided claim.
All that remained was 'Fashion-i,' the mascot Daegu created to promote itself as a fashion city.

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12 comments
That mascot is basically abandoned now—Daldalsu is the main one these days
Fashion-i lmaooooo
What a shit name lmaooo
Makes sense the textile industry was already dying by then—those engineers who worked in textiles had reasons to be upset
wait this is actually insane, how did they get away with this for so long??? 😭
1 trillion lol fml
If they'd used that money to attract major corporation factories instead of textiles, Daegu would've thrived as an industrial city lmao. Those textile moguls just raided government funds and bought real estate to cash out lmao
The Milan thing is kinda unfair though—the Milan mayor definitely signed an agreement with them. But Milan's city council shot it down and never told Daegu about it. From Daegu's perspective, they shook hands with the mayor, got signatures, everything. When it fell through, Milan should've notified them. Instead they ghosted, so how would Daegu know? When they went back to Milan for the next sister city deal, they learned from that experience and didn't trust just the mayor—they made sure to meet with the city council president and witnessed the council approval before heading home. So now the Daegu-Milan sister city relationship is actually legit.
Ah lmao that is kinda rough
lmaooo
Did your mayor move to Milan or something?
This is genuinely unfair lmao
Not just that—the subsidies Daegu handed out in the name of 'AI projects' and the game results are also a mess. Can't get into details without risking legal papers coming my way
Wait, it's just an undeniable scam that happened, so why are you dragging it? I mean, it is what it is
The business model itself was sound. Daegu thrived on textiles since the 1950s and successfully developed large-scale dyeing complexes in the 80s. The problem was that from the late 80s onward, globalization and high wages made the industry uncompetitive. So in 1996, they launched the Milan Project as a national policy initiative. The pitch was: let's evolve Daegu's declining textile industry into fashion! The catch? The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis hit. Business owners moved factories to cheaper Southeast Asia. Companies that failed to relocate went under. Big corporations bailed. Plus, there was no concrete strategy—they just kept throwing money at it. Result: both government and private sector got wrecked. What happened to the few wins they had? 2007-09 subprime mortgage crisis happened. These days, Daegu's textile industry limps along in name only. The real irony? They successfully shifted to auto parts, eyewear manufacturing, robotics, and water purification industries.
Where the hell did all that money even go?
The project failed, but it did keep Daegu's textile industry alive through the Daegu Dyeing Industrial Complex and contributed to creating the commercial district IsiaPollis (formerly Fashion Apparel Valley). They also built Daegu Stadium to boost the construction sector.
lmao the creativity some people have to commit crimes instead of just... paying taxes normally
Daegu's sewing and textile businesses basically vanished, but eyewear frame manufacturing is still thriving.
okay but this is lowkey more sophisticated than anything I've seen, korea doesn't play around with their accounting apparently