Provincial Governors Association Adopts Governor Lee Jae-myung's Proposal to Change 'Local Governments' to 'Local Governments'

[Asia Economy (Gwangju) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The Korea Council of Governors has amended and approved Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung's proposal to change the term 'local autonomous bodies' to 'local governments' to strengthen decentralization.

The Korea Council of Governors held its 45th general meeting on the 18th at the International Conference Room of the Cultural Information Center at the National Asia Culture Center in Gwangju Metropolitan City and adopted the "Joint Statement of Korea's City and Province Governors to the 21st National Assembly."

In the joint statement, the council requested ▲ prompt discussion and passage of decentralization-related bills ▲ establishment of a special committee on decentralization in the National Assembly ▲ inclusion of decentralization provisions in constitutional amendment discussions.

Before the resolution, Governor Lee proposed on-site, "The term 'local autonomous bodies' does not fit the status of local governments," adding, "I hope that from now on, at the level of the Council of Governors, we respect ourselves by using the term 'local governments' and include this in the joint statement."

The nationwide city and province governors accepted this and amended the existing proposal, which stated, "When discussing constitutional amendments, decentralization provisions must be reflected (omitted)... The content should include guarantees of local legislative authority, autonomous financial authority, autonomous administrative authority, and autonomous organizational authority as individual clauses," by adding the phrase "renaming 'local autonomous bodies' to 'local governments' to elevate their status."

Earlier, Governor Lee instructed to publicize the name change of local governments so that the independent and horizontal relationship between the central and local governments is clearly revealed.

Since 'local autonomous bodies' are specified in the constitution, a constitutional amendment is essential to officially change the name.

In December last year, Governor Lee also proposed changing the official name to 'local governments' at the launch ceremony of the Metropolitan Fair Economy Council. Recently, the province established the 'Gyeonggi Province Decentralization Promotion and Support Plan,' selecting the public discussion of the name change of local governments as a major promotion task.

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