National Association of Mayors, County Governors, and District Heads Issues Welfare Grand Compromise Statement

National Association of Mayors, Governors, and District Heads to Announce Welfare Grand Compromise Statement on the 28th for Building a Sustainable Welfare System...Proposing 9 Tasks in 3 Areas for Rational Role Sharing Among Central, Metropolitan, and Local Governments

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The ‘National Association of Mayors, County Governors, and District Heads’ (Representative Chairman Yeom Tae-young, Mayor of Suwon) (hereinafter referred to as the National Association) announced a Welfare Grand Compromise Statement for the establishment of a sustainable welfare system at a press conference in the National Assembly at 2 p.m. on the 28th. The statement emphasized that the central government should take full responsibility for income security welfare benefits such as basic pensions and child allowances, which are national and universal in nature, and that welfare projects established by metropolitan governments should be fully funded by city/provincial budgets. It also stressed the establishment of a ‘Financial Burden Deliberation Committee’ involving metropolitan and basic governments to institutionalize consultation and build a financial policy partnership.

The association proposed a total of 9 tasks in 3 areas for a rational division of roles in welfare among the central, metropolitan, and basic governments to move toward a sustainable welfare state.

This proposal reflects the opinions of 202 basic governments nationwide and various experts who participated in the Welfare Grand Compromise Special Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Special Committee), launched under the National Association in July last year, suggesting fundamental measures for establishing an orderly welfare system.

The National Association diagnosed that despite the expansion of various welfare policies to address increasingly complex social problems, effective and sustainable responses to welfare demands are impossible due to unreasonable relationships among the central, metropolitan, and basic governments. They argued that the current irrational welfare system must be changed and that the welfare finances and affairs among the central, metropolitan, and basic governments need to be reestablished.

Accordingly, the central government should take full responsibility for income security welfare benefits such as basic pensions and child allowances, which are national and universal in nature, and welfare projects established by metropolitan governments should be fully funded by city/provincial budgets. The statement emphasized building a financial policy partnership through institutionalizing the establishment of a ‘Financial Burden Deliberation Committee’ involving metropolitan and basic governments for consultation.

Additionally, basic governments will form welfare project coordination committees at each city/province level to prepare autonomous compliance measures when establishing and operating new welfare systems, and they pledged to make efforts to eliminate regional disparities.

Representative Chairman Yeom Tae-young said, “While preparing this proposal, we reconsidered the roles and functions of basic governments in the welfare sector,” adding, “The current inefficient welfare policy operation and the ongoing deterioration of welfare finances in basic governments could threaten the quality of life of local residents.” He expressed hope that a partnership based on consultation among government entities would be realized based on this Welfare Grand Compromise proposal.

Secretary General Jeong Won-oh of the Special Committee said, “Starting from this announcement, we will carry out continuous activities to implement the Welfare Grand Compromise,” and added, “In May, we plan to propose a sharing plan for basic local governments in the social service sector, and in June, we will hold a National Assembly forum coinciding with the opening of the 21st National Assembly, focusing on the Welfare Grand Compromise proposal.”

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