Chungnam Accelerates to Complete Innovation City Designation Within the Year

[Asia Economy (Naepo) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] Chungnam Province has initiated procedures to complete the designation of an innovation city within this year. This is to accelerate the preparation of review materials ahead of the promulgation and legislative notice of the Partial Amendment to the Special Act on Balanced National Development (hereinafter referred to as the Balanced Development Act Amendment).

According to the province on the 8th, the Balanced Development Act Amendment was passed by the National Assembly on the 6th of last month and promulgated and announced in the official gazette on the 7th of this month.

The Balanced Development Act Amendment specifies the legal basis for designating Chungnam as an innovation city, including the designation of innovation cities by metropolitan cities and provinces and the procedures for designating innovation cities.

Additionally, according to the promulgated amendment to the enforcement decree, the province must prepare an innovation city development plan that includes the necessity of designating an innovation city, a rough location, regional industrial development, and improvement of residential conditions, and submit it to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Accordingly, the province plans to apply for the designation of the innovation city to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in line with the enforcement of the amended decree in July and will actively begin preparing review materials. The review materials are expected to comprehensively include contents that align with the amended enforcement decree, such as the necessity of designating an innovation city.

At the same time, the province will conduct preliminary groundwork to build consensus by explaining the legislative intent to the National Balanced Development Committee, which reviews the designation of Chungnam as an innovation city.

With the Balanced Development Committee’s review and resolution, Chungnam will be designated as an innovation city, and procedures such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s establishment of the 2nd public institution relocation plan, application and designation of the innovation city development planned district, establishment of a comprehensive innovation city development plan, designation of project implementers, approval of development plans, and approval of implementation plans will proceed.

In particular, the province will also accelerate the relocation of public institutions located in the Seoul metropolitan area to Chungnam, which has been promoted so far. Administrative efforts will be concentrated to ensure that the relocation of public institutions to Chungnam’s innovation city is reflected in the direction of establishing the 2nd public institution relocation plan.

If public institutions are attracted to Chungnam’s innovation city, the province expects effects such as an increase in employment rates of local talents including university students in the region, an increase in the resident population, attraction of private companies, improvement of residential conditions including housing, education, medical, cultural, and sports facilities, an increase in local tax revenue, and revitalization of the regional economy.

Previously, the province has carried out activities to attract Chungnam’s innovation city, including ▲policy proposals to the Moon Jae-in administration’s National Policy Planning Advisory Committee ▲Governor Yang Seung-jo’s visit to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister ▲holding a policy forum at the National Assembly ▲proposals for innovation city designation to the President ▲joint proposals by the four governors of the Chungcheong region ▲joint proposals by the Chungnam local government council ▲and a one million signature campaign.

A provincial official said, “Procedures related to Chungnam’s innovation city designation, such as the promulgation of the Balanced Development Act Amendment and the legislative notice (planned) of the enforcement decree amendment, are progressing one after another,” and added, “Based on this, the province will carry out all-out activities to ensure that Chungnam can be designated as an innovation city within this year.”

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