Daejeon Mayor Lee Jang-woo: "Even Fully Local Funded Projects Are Reviewed by the Ministry of the Interior... Central Investment Review Needs Improvement"

17 City and Provincial Governors' Council General Assembly in Seoul on the 22nd
Lee Jang-woo, Mayor of Daejeon, Proposes Improvements to the Central Investment Review
"Joint Response to Overcome Constraints on Local Fiscal Autonomy"

"There is a need to improve the central investment review system that restricts the autonomy of local finances," proposed Lee Jang-woo, Mayor of Daejeon, on the 22nd at the 58th General Assembly of the Korea Association of Mayors and Governors held at the Press Center in Jung-gu, Seoul.

The general assembly was held with the participation of 17 mayors and governors nationwide to discuss current issues of the association and agenda items to be submitted at this year's Central-Local Cooperation Meeting. During the assembly, the mayors and governors discussed the proposed agenda items and then proceeded to suggest cooperation matters by city and province.

The agenda items under review included ▲ Improvement of the central investment review system for local financial investment projects (Daejeon) ▲ Strengthening the public medical system ▲ Enhancing autonomous police authority, among others.

At the general assembly, Daejeon City, following the previous assembly, proposed improvements to the central investment review criteria for local financial investment projects and an increase in national funding for the construction and operation costs of metropolitan railways.

In particular, Mayor Lee Jang-woo of Daejeon pointed out, "The central investment review system, which requires even projects fully funded by local budgets to undergo feasibility reviews by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, restricts the autonomy of local finances," and suggested, "We must respond jointly at the association level to improve the central investment review criteria."

Under the current Enforcement Decree of the Local Finance Act (Article 41 on the review of financial investment projects), projects such as public office buildings, new construction of cultural and sports facilities (over 4 billion KRW), and event-type projects (over 3 billion KRW) must undergo central investment review. Mayor Lee Jang-woo of Daejeon advocates for a joint response to uniformly raise this threshold to over 30 billion KRW by city and province.

He also proposed, "To establish a core foundation for strengthening regional competitiveness and balanced national development, the activation of metropolitan railways is necessary," and suggested, "The national funding support for metropolitan railway construction costs should be expanded from 70% to 100%, and operating losses should be supported by national funds to improve the metropolitan railway operation system."

He added, "To realize a true local era, I will actively cooperate with the 17 cities and provinces and the central government to ensure continuous communication and collaboration so that substantial expansion of local authority can be achieved."

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