Kim Dong-yeon’s 2nd Pledge: "Build Mega Cities with Seoul-Level Standards in Five Regions Nationwide"

Presidential primary candidate Kim Dong-yeon is announcing his "Second Pledge (First for Future Preparedness)" at the National Assembly Communication Office on the 9th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] Former Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Kim Dong-yeon has announced regional balanced development as his second pledge. The core of the plan is to establish mega-cities comparable to Seoul in each nationwide region and provide financial support.

On the 9th, former Deputy Prime Minister Kim announced the "Creating Five Seouls" pledge at the National Assembly, stating, "We will build mega-cities at the level of Seoul in five regions: the metropolitan area, Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam, Daegu-Gyeongbuk, Daejeon-Chungcheong, and Gwangju-Honam, and promote regional development accordingly."

He promised to introduce a "fiscal federalism" system to achieve financial balance between the central government and local governments. This means expanding local governments' fiscal discretion so that they can decide on economic administrative rights such as corporate-related regulatory autonomy.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Kim explained, "We will enable local governments to make decisions on projects within their fiscal scope," and "local governments will set priorities for regional development, welfare, education, and cultural projects." He also pledged to introduce joint taxation on income tax and corporate tax and to increase the local share of value-added tax to create substantial local fiscal decentralization.

He said, "Local areas will thrive if companies relocate there," and announced additional corporate tax reductions for companies moving south of the Chungnam region. He revealed plans to reduce inheritance and gift taxes if companies relocating south of the Chungnam region maintain employment for ten years.

He also stated that undergraduate departments of Seoul National University will be relocated to local areas, and if private universities based in Seoul move to local regions, special exemptions will be created for acquisition tax, inheritance tax, gift tax, and changes in use after sale to provide incentives for relocation.

Furthermore, he said he would increase the enrollment quotas and provide focused support for future-oriented departments such as medical schools, pharmacy schools, and biotechnology at regional base universities.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Kim also announced a pledge to expand facilities and medical staff at local university hospitals. He said, "We will establish cultural infrastructure in key cities and sufficiently supply regional cultural vouchers to foster a regional cultural boom," and added, "Compared to the relatively well-equipped long-distance transportation network nationwide, we will improve inter-regional and intra-regional transportation networks, which are in poor condition, into convenient spider-web transportation networks."

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