"Response to Local Extinction Crisis" Amendment to the 'Special Act on Balanced National Development Enforcement Decree' Passed at the Cabinet Meeting

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Announces Designation of Population Decline Areas for Second Half of This Year
Promoting Various Administrative and Financial Support for Population Decline Areas

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Amid growing concerns over local extinction due to the rapid population decline in regions, a legal foundation has been established to systematically respond to the regional population crisis.

On the 1st, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that the revised Enforcement Decree of the Special Act on Balanced National Development, which stipulates the designation procedures for population-declining areas and administrative and financial support measures, was passed at the Cabinet meeting.

This revision is a follow-up measure following the promulgation of the Special Act on Balanced National Development amendment in December last year and will take effect from the 9th. The revision includes establishing grounds for designating population-declining areas, including support policies in the five-year plan for balanced national development, and stipulating the support obligations of the state and local governments.

Population-declining areas refer to cities, counties, and districts where local extinction is feared due to population decline. These areas are designated and announced by the Minister of the Interior and Safety after consultation with relevant ministries and local governments and review by the National Balanced Development Committee.

Accordingly, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to prepare designation criteria considering factors such as the elderly population, youth population, birth rate, persistence of population decline, and population movement trends in the second half of this year and designate population-declining areas.

With this revision of the enforcement decree, administrative and financial support measures and their legal grounds for population-declining areas by the state and local governments have also been established. Provinces and metropolitan cities must establish and implement development plans (every five years) and annual implementation plans that include support measures for cities, counties, and districts designated as population-declining areas based on this.

Going forward, the government plans to prepare comprehensive policies for systematic support of population-declining areas, considering the development plans established by provinces and metropolitan cities, and reflect these in the 5th Five-Year Plan for Balanced National Development (2023?2027) for implementation. The state and local governments may prioritize allocating a certain portion of subsidies to population-declining areas when promoting each subsidy project, and these projects will be promoted with interconnectivity.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to actively support population-declining areas in establishing and executing comprehensive plans to respond to the population decline crisis led by the local community, in cooperation with relevant ministries. When comprehensive plans are established in population-declining areas designated in the second half of this year, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will promote support for projects specialized for the region in addition to existing ministry subsidy projects through consultation with relevant ministries starting from 2022.

Minister Jeon Hae-cheol said, “With this revision of the enforcement decree, a foundation has been laid for regions to proactively overcome the population decline crisis,” and added, “We will actively support relevant ministries to help regions facing the crisis of local extinction due to population decline regain population vitality.”

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