Suwon-si, Special City Authority to Be Further Expanded

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The authority of the special city of Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, will be expanded.

On the 6th, Suwon City announced that the amendment to the "Special Act on Decentralization of Local Government and Reorganization of Local Administrative System," which includes granting additional authority over six tasks to special cities with a population of over 1 million, passed the National Assembly plenary session on the 5th.

The recently passed amendment includes ▲ tasks related to environmental improvement charges ▲ mountain area conversion permits ▲ formation and operation of the local construction technology review committee ▲ development and operation of logistics complexes ▲ development and operation of port facilities in locally managed trade ports ▲ management of shared waters within the port areas of locally managed trade ports.

The amendment also includes the transfer of 121 tasks to special cities. Additionally, it stipulates changing the designation of "metropolitan cities with a population of 1 million" to special cities as designated under the Local Autonomy Act.

On the same day, the amendment to the "Nonprofit Private Organizations Support Act" also passed the plenary session. Once the law is enforced, authority over registration, cancellation, and support of nonprofit private organizations will be transferred to special cities, enabling prompt handling of related tasks. It is expected that the public interest activities of nonprofit private organizations in Suwon City will become more active.

According to the supplementary provisions, the amendments to the Local Decentralization Act and the Nonprofit Private Organizations Support Act will be enforced after a one-year preparation period following their promulgation through the State Council.

With the passage of these two amendments in the National Assembly, Suwon City is expected to secure more authority and provide administrative services to citizens more quickly and efficiently in related fields.

Currently, the environmental improvement charge authority is delegated by Gyeonggi Province to Suwon City, which is responsible for levying and collecting the charge. However, once the authority is transferred to Suwon City, the legal authority and actual task handler will be unified, significantly improving work efficiency.

Moreover, Suwon City will be able to secure additional grants for collection costs, allowing it to expand its own environmental improvement projects.

Meanwhile, among the two functions (six unit tasks) included in the "Second Local Government Transfer Act," which passed the State Council on January 25 and was submitted to the National Assembly, the "designation and evaluation of tourism special zones" (five unit tasks) passed the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee on March 31, and the "consultation task for designation of new technology startup clusters" (one unit task) is currently under review by the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee.

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