"Regional Development, Constitutional Amendment Needed" ... Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk, Meets President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol to Propose 'One-Point' Amendment

Gyeongbuk Governor Lee Cheol-woo is meeting with President-elect Yoon Seok-youl on the 18th to propose regional development tasks.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] Including a one-point constitutional amendment to strengthen local decentralization, Governor Lee Cheol-woo of Gyeongbuk met with President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol and proposed seven major tasks for regional development.

Governor Lee visited the Presidential Transition Committee on the 18th and held a meeting with President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol. He also met with transition committee officials including Kim Byung-joon, Chairman of the Special Committee on Balanced Development.

On that day, Governor Lee proposed seven major tasks for the development of Gyeongbuk and a plan for advancing to a developed country through regional balanced development.

Governor Lee argued that since the launch of local autonomy, successive governments have continuously adopted and promoted local decentralization and balanced development as national agendas, but local autonomy has only been a matter of dividing resources.

He also pointed out that balanced development has been approached from the perspective of alleviating the deprivation of relatively neglected regions, which has deepened concentration in the metropolitan area and put local areas at risk of extinction.

On that day, Governor Lee proposed a "model for advancing to a developed country through regional balanced development" to the President-elect.

The advanced country advancement model includes ① a local decentralization-type constitutional amendment ② administrative integration of an economic zone with a population of 5 million ③ substantial expansion of autonomy ④ establishment of a regional growth value chain centered on universities, local governments, research institutes, and companies ⑤ five proposals including the state's responsibility and investment in balanced development.

The main content includes a one-point constitutional amendment for local decentralization that stipulates in the constitution the "principle of local government priority," where local governments perform local affairs under the principle of self-responsibility, and the state holds authority over affairs that local governments cannot perform.

It also contains the claim that institutional improvements should be promoted to enable administrative integration of a population of 5 million, and that the state's responsibility and investment for balanced development should be strengthened by upgrading the Balanced Development Committee under the president to an administrative committee with strong execution power.

He also proposed seven major projects for the development of Gyeongbuk. These include industrial promotion tasks in which the region has strengths such as "new airport construction," "future cars, batteries, metaverse, vaccine bio," and a request to foster Gyeongbuk as a national strategic technology hub such as an "accelerator-based advanced industrial cluster."

For the East Coast area, he proposed fostering it as a "national energy and forest great transformation belt," including the utilization of forest resources from Baekdudaegan and Nakdongjeongmaek and nuclear hydrogen, and strongly promoting "national balanced development SOC" including the Yeongilman Transversal Bridge and east-west connecting railway and road transportation networks.

Governor Lee Cheol-woo of Gyeongbuk said, "Repeated reviews and promotions of regional development projects at the start of each new government have limitations in solving accumulated imbalance problems."

He added, "This government must work with local governments to change the framework of national governance in Korea, and I will do my best to help ensure that the success of local areas leads to the success of the nation."

President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol responded, "I appreciate the active support of Daegu and Gyeongbuk," and said, "I am well aware of Gyeongsangbuk-do's new airport and Yeongilman, and I will take good care of them in the new government."

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