Ministry of the Interior and Safety's Three-Pronged Comprehensive Support for 'Region-Led Local Extinction Countermeasures'

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will promote three-dimensional support in three directions to effectively respond to local extinction: ▲financial support (Local Extinction Response Fund, Regional Revitalization Investment Fund), ▲administrative support (discovery and expansion of customized special cases for declining areas), ▲and support for strengthening regional capabilities (providing statistics on resident population and customized regional characteristics).

First, the Local Extinction Response Fund is a resource introduced in 2022 to support responses to regional population decline and the risk of local extinction. Over 10 years (2022?2031), it will be distributed annually at a scale of 1 trillion KRW to 15 metropolitan and 107 basic local governments (89 population-declining areas and 18 areas of interest). Additionally, starting this year, to increase the execution rate of fund projects, on-site inspections will be strengthened to resolve difficulties, and if execution becomes difficult, changes to project content will be allowed.

Along with this, starting this year, a Regional Revitalization Investment Fund worth 3 trillion KRW will be created through linkage with private resources to support large-scale projects related to local extinction response, such as infrastructure development.

Meanwhile, projects responding to local extinction, promoted in cooperation with related ministries, will also be expanded. The Regional Vitality Town creation project, jointly promoted with eight central ministries to support retirees and returnees to rural areas in relocating and settling stably in local regions, will be expanded from the existing 7 locations to 10.

As an institutional support measure for responding to local extinction, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety will establish a pan-governmental system to discover special cases and expand the number of customized special cases for population-declining areas from the current 36 to 70 this year, pursuing legal amendments. Furthermore, it will support strengthening local government capabilities by providing various statistics and indicators so that local governments can independently establish and implement customized policies suitable for their regions.

Moreover, to ensure effective establishment of local government-led local extinction countermeasures, consulting will be provided to practitioners, and an excellent case competition with awards will be held through performance evaluations to encourage active participation of local governments.

Minister Lee Sang-min of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety stated, “We will actively support the proper promotion of innovation and growth projects led by local regions this year by utilizing the Local Extinction Response Fund and Regional Revitalization Investment Fund.” He added, “We will cooperate with related ministries, local governments, and the private sector to promptly realize an era of livable local cities anywhere in the Republic of Korea.”

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