Mayors of 5 Cities Including Changwon Submit Petition on '2nd Phase Public Institution Relocation to Local Areas' to Prime Minister Kim Bu-gyeom

Mayors of Chungju, Jecheon, Gongju, Suncheon, Pohang, Gumi, Sangju, Mungyeong, and Changwon Hold '2nd Public Institution Relocation to Provinces Forum'
Adoption of '2nd Joint Petition Urging Public Institution Relocation to Provinces'

Mayor Heo Seong-mu of Changwon City, Gyeongnam, and heads of five other cities are delivering a petition regarding the '2nd Public Institution Relocation to Local Areas' during a meeting with Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum. [Image source=Changwon City]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Sang-hyun] On the 8th, Heo Seong-mu, mayor of Changwon City, Gyeongnam, and heads of nine non-metropolitan cities held the "2nd Public Institution Relocation to Local Areas Forum for Enhancing National Competitiveness" at the Kensington Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul, and adopted the "Joint Petition Urging the 2nd Public Institution Relocation to Local Areas."

The forum was co-hosted by nine cities from different regions: Changwon City in Gyeongnam; Pohang, Gumi, Mungyeong, and Sangju Cities in Gyeongbuk; Suncheon City in Jeonnam; Chungju and Jecheon Cities in Chungbuk; and Gongju City in Chungnam. Fourteen local district members of the National Assembly supported the event.

About 60 participants, including local government officials, political figures, and experts who empathize with the seriousness of local extinction, engaged in in-depth discussions on the "Promotion Plan for the 2nd Public Institution Relocation to Local Areas."

The keynote speech was delivered by Song Jae-ho, a member of the Democratic Party and former chairman of the National Balanced Development Committee (Jeju-si Gap), on the topic of "Evaluation of the 1st Relocation and Implications for the 2nd Relocation."

Rep. Song pointed out the limitations of the first relocation policy, which emphasized the principle of equity, stating, "Although it contributed somewhat to regional development, the mechanical nationwide distribution of institutions resulted in insufficient relevance to local industries and innovation effects."

He emphasized that the 2nd relocation should advance as a policy that achieves efficiency by enabling synergy effects between relocated public institutions and the industries of the receiving regions.

In the subsequent comprehensive discussion under the theme "Direction of the 2nd Public Institution Relocation to Enhance National Competitiveness," various opinions were exchanged among experts on regional issues from both public and private sectors, including Professor Park Min-won of Changwon National University, Song Woo-kyung, Director of External Cooperation at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, and Oh Byung-ki, Senior Research Fellow at the Gwangju-Jeonnam Research Institute.

They all agreed that to increase the effectiveness of the policy, emphasis should be placed on strengthening regional connectivity so that regions can develop independently even after the relocation of public institutions.

To that end, they argued that the approach of concentrating relocations in innovation cities, as was done in the first relocation, should be avoided, and individual relocations should be expanded.

Mayor Heo, Mayor Lee Sang-cheon of Jecheon, Mayor Kim Jeong-seop of Gongju, Mayor Kang Young-seok of Sangju, and Mayor Go Yoon-hwan of Mungyeong personally delivered the petition to Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum at the National Assembly on the same day.

At that meeting, the mayors appealed, "Local cities are facing a comprehensive crisis including low birth rates and aging, decline of main industries and job losses, crisis of local universities, and weakening of regional innovation bases," and stressed, "It is necessary to promptly implement the relocation of public institutions to local areas to fundamentally resolve the increasingly severe concentration in the metropolitan area."

Mayor Heo stated, "Although we are now facing an unprecedented crisis of local extinction, with the valuable insights from the experts here today and the interest of the political community, the nine cities representing 2.8 million citizens will strive to complete balanced national development through the 2nd public institution relocation."

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