President Park Geun-hye celebrated the groundbreaking Wednesday for what would be the first industrial complex in her hometown and political stronghold of Daegu as she visited the southeastern city for the first time since last year’s presidential election.

The Daegu National Industrial Complex is a long-cherished dream-come-true for Daegu, the only large city or province in South Korea without an industrial complex. Such zones of factories and companies are considered a boon for regional economies as they create jobs and bring in taxes and other revenues.

As a lawmaker, Park had also put in much efforts to bring such a complex to her hometown.

On Wednesday, Park pushed the button for a ceremonial blast of explosives during its groundbreaking ceremony.

“If state-of-the-art industries, such as future-oriented vehicles, next-generation electronics and communication, green energy and biochemistry, take presence in the Daegu National Industrial Complex ... it will contribute greatly to revitalizing the regional economy,” Park said in a congratulatory speech.

Park said she will spare no support for remodeling all industrial complexes across the country in a way that they can take center stage for her “creative economy” vision, an initiative that calls for creating new business opportunities and more jobs through the fusion of information technology, culture and other realms.

She also pledged to boldly improve regulations that impede creativity and investment and to continue to carry out infrastructure projects, known as social overhead capital projects, for provincial regions, a remark designed to allay criticism she is putting less priority on regional projects.

Daegu had earlier attempted to create an industrial complex in the 1990s, but the bid fell through as residents near the proposed site on the city’s outskirts opposed the plan over concern that it would lead to pollution of the Nakdong River running through the region.

In 2009, the central government accepted Daegu’s request to host an industrial complex and designated about 8.54 million square meters of land southwest of the city as its site. The 1.76 trillion won ($1.57 billion) project calls for building the first stage of the complex by 2016 and the second stage by 2018.

The city plans to draw electronics, communications and other high-tech firms to the complex.

Earlier in the day, she attended an Environment Day ceremony at a Daegu arboretum.

“I will carry out an environment policy just as it should be in order to open up an era of the people’s happiness,” Park said in a speech. She also called for greater investment in the environment industry, saying the country should no longer see the issue of the environment as simply as a matter of regulations.

It was Park’s first visit to the city in about half a year, where she has enjoyed absolute support and was elected to Parliament five times in a row since she entered politics in the late 1990s. She last visited the city a week before last year’s Dec. 19 presidential vote.

The hometown visit was also seen in part as aimed at renewing her commitment to leadership at a time when South Korea faces an array of hard-to-handle issues, such as an intractable North Korea and the sluggish economy.

But officials cautioned against reading too much into the visit.

“The president is going there because there is an event to attend,” an official said earlier in the day, adding that she is expected to make visits to provincial regions more often than before. (Yonhap News)