Park Wan-su, Governor of Gyeongnam, "Administrative Integration Will Bring Prosperity and Opportunities to Bu-Ul-Gyeong"

59.7% of Gyeongnam Residents and 75.1% of Busan Citizens Say "Administrative Integration Will Be Helpful"

Park Wan-su, Governor of Gyeongnam Province, is speaking about administrative integration at the 2022 Korea Regional Grand Forum.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Se-ryeong] “Administrative integration will bring new prosperity and opportunities to Bu-Ul-Gyeong.”

Park Wan-su, Governor of Gyeongnam Province, once again raised the issue of Bu-Ul-Gyeong administrative integration at the 2022 Korea Regional Grand Forum.

About 200 people, including Governor Park, Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon, Ulsan Mayor Kim Doo-gyeom, businesspeople, and civic groups, attended the forum held on the 22nd.

The forum was held under the theme “New Bu-Ul-Gyeong, What and How to Do?”

Governor Park presented the future development strategy of Bu-Ul-Gyeong administrative integration through his keynote speech.

“Until Busan separated from Gyeongnam in 1963 and Ulsan in 1997, Bu-Ul-Gyeong was one family and a leading force in Korea’s industrialization and democratization,” he recalled the past of the three regions.

He continued, “Currently, Bu-Ul-Gyeong is going through difficult times such as population decline, youth outflow, and growth limitations, but the three regions have not been able to raise a unified voice for overall development.”

Governor Park pointed out the limitations of the Bu-Ul-Gyeong Special Union on this day.

“The Bu-Ul-Gyeong Special Union is one of the joint work processing methods and may take on tasks without special authority or finances,” he said. “A special union that gathers the tasks previously handled by existing cities and provinces, hires public officials, builds government offices, forms a council, and spends budgets is not appropriate.”

“So far, Bu-Ul-Gyeong has been a zero-sum game of taking from each other, but now we must write a new history of a plus game that develops together through administrative integration,” he emphasized.

“Not just growing in size, but receiving quasi-governmental authority to open a new era of local decentralization and lead national balanced development,” he added.

Governor Park expressed his intention to promote the integration of Busan and Gyeongnam, saying, “I know well that neither the special union nor administrative integration is easy, but I hope that the political circles and citizens of cities and provinces will unite with great will for administrative integration.”

Regarding a question about the establishment of the Space Aviation Agency, he showed confidence, saying, “The government is making a roadmap for establishment, and once the Space Aviation Agency is established, Gyeongnam will firmly establish itself in the space aviation industry.”

On the nuclear industry, he said, “With the new government, the region has high expectations for the recovery of the nuclear power ecosystem,” and “Through export expansion and commercialization of small modular reactors, Gyeongnam will become the center of the nuclear power industry.”

At the forum, results of a related public opinion survey targeting about 2,400 citizens of Bu-Ul-Gyeong cities and provinces on regional issues were also announced.

Gyeongnam residents and Ulsan citizens chose “full support for major regional projects” as the government’s most urgent task to respond to regional extinction.

Busan citizens most frequently selected “relocation of public institutions and headquarters of large corporations to local areas.”

Regarding the biggest gap between the metropolitan area and non-metropolitan areas, citizens of Bu-Ul-Gyeong all cited “differences in job creation opportunities such as production facilities and companies.”

As Bu-Ul-Gyeong tasks that must be realized by the central government, Busan citizens answered “construction of the U-shaped tri-port transportation network in western Gyeongnam and early completion of Gadeok New Airport,” while Ulsan citizens answered “establishment of a life science cluster and construction of Ulsan Medical Center.”

Regarding the necessity of administrative integration between Gyeongnam and Busan, 59.7% of Gyeongnam residents and 75.1% of Busan citizens expected it to be “helpful.”

The 2022 Korea Regional Grand Forum is scheduled to be broadcast for 65 minutes from 8:50 a.m. on the 23rd through KNN and UBC channels.

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