Sang-il Lee, Mayor of Yongin, "Special City Administrative and Financial Autonomy Must Be Expanded"

Emphasis at Meeting Between Four Special Cities and Local Era Committee Chairpersons

Lee Sang-il, mayor of Yongin City in Gyeonggi Province, stated that expanding administrative and financial autonomy is urgent to meet the diverse administrative demands of special cities.

On the 23rd, Mayor Lee conveyed this position during a meeting with Woo Dong-gi, chairman of the Local Era Committee, held in the main conference room of the Local Era Committee in Sejong City, along with four special city mayors: Lee Dong-hwan of Goyang, Lee Jae-jun of Suwon, and Hong Nam-pyo of Changwon. The Local Era Committee is a presidential advisory body that integrates the former Autonomy and Decentralization Committee and the Balanced Development Committee, overseeing policies and tasks for regional balanced development and strengthening local autonomy, as well as reviewing various support projects.

Lee Sang-il, Mayor of Yongin City, is delivering a petition to Woo Dong-gi, Chairman of the Local Era Committee, requesting the expansion of administrative and financial autonomy for special cities.
[Photo by Yongin City]

At the meeting, Mayor Lee emphasized, "Since the administration of special cities with populations exceeding one million is almost equivalent to the affairs of metropolitan cities and provinces, administrative and financial autonomy must be expanded."

Earlier, the four special cities submitted a review agenda requesting the transfer of authority over 57 functional tasks (198 unit tasks) to special cities through practical discussions with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Local Era Committee last month. This includes newly identified tasks in addition to the 25 cases approved during the Autonomy and Decentralization Committee period, out of the 86 functional tasks originally requested for transfer by the special cities.

The transfer of tasks is carried out by the Local Era Committee recommending relevant central government ministries to amend laws regarding the approved agenda, and once the related legislation is amended by the National Assembly, the authority over the tasks is transferred to the special cities.

The special city mayors also emphasized that the committee should support the legalization of special city tasks so that the 25 cases approved during the Autonomy and Decentralization Committee period can be promptly transferred to the special cities.

Mayor Lee requested, "To meet the various administrative demands faced by large cities with populations over one million, it is urgent to secure autonomy in administrative and financial authority." He explained that even within Yongin City, Giheung District has 440,000 residents and Suji District has 380,000, which is more populous than many metropolitan city districts, thus necessitating an upgrade in the rank of district heads.

Chairman Woo stated, "The Yoon Seok-yeol administration is also working in a direction that significantly transfers authority directly related to the lives of residents living in local areas from the central government to local governments," adding, "Local governments will move toward holding authority at the level secured by Jeju Special Self-Governing Province."

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