Jeonnam Governor Kim Young-rok: "City-Province Integration Must Be Approached with Practicality"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeonnam Province, stated, "City-province integration should be approached with a practical and realistic mindset."

Governor Kim said during the regular briefing on the 3rd, "Consensus building is important for the integration of Gwangju and Jeonnam city-provinces," adding, "This is only possible through mutual respect and consideration."

He continued, "Regarding the city-province integration, reaching an agreement was the result of listening to residents' opinions, holding forums, and learning from two failures to create a plan," and added, "Ultimately, the primary goal is to develop a win-win strategy that benefits both regions through integration and to ensure their prosperity. Next, efforts should be focused on creating synergy effects through this integration."

In particular, he emphasized the necessity of continuous communication and harmony by stating, "The integration process must ensure genuine local autonomy with substantial authority, not just nominal self-governance, and it requires a practical and realistic approach."

He further stated, "We need to start by discovering ultra-wide area projects and have the city and province cooperate and work together," and stressed, "Moreover, it is necessary to adopt a step-by-step approach that builds an economic cooperation community by jointly promoting economic cooperation projects, ultimately leading to administrative integration."

He also mentioned the government's ongoing regional New Deal initiatives.

He explained, "In reality, the Korean New Deal has tended to be centralized, leaving regions marginalized, so expanding the Korean New Deal to regions is appropriate," and added, "Jeonnam has already formed a Regional Balanced New Deal Promotion Team and is making efforts to discover 27 additional projects worth 1.4 trillion won recently."

Additionally, he said, "Important bills such as the Korea Electric Power Corporation University, the October 19 Incident, and the Special Act on Population Decline Areas, which have emerged as provincial issues, are crucial for the future of Jeonnam," and urged, "Please make further efforts to ensure these related bills pass in the upcoming regular National Assembly session."

Governor Kim also expressed concern about animal diseases, stating, "Recently, highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) has been detected, and AI outbreaks have occurred in Russia, China, and the Philippines. Meanwhile, African swine fever has broken out in Gangwon Province, putting us on high alert," and requested, "While preventing COVID-19 is important, please thoroughly cooperate with related agencies to prevent livestock infectious diseases."

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