Ministry of Planning and Budget Discusses Next Year’s Budget with 17 Local Governments... "Supporting a Great Leap Forward Led by Localities"

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance is holding the "2026 Local Finance Council" with 17 local governments at the National Sejong Library from May 7 to 8, 2026. The Local Finance Council is an annual event, held since 2009, where fiscal authorities and local governments come together to share the direction of fiscal operations for the following year and discuss major local projects.

Jo Yongbum, Director of the Budget Office at the Ministry of Planning and Budget, is delivering the opening remarks at the '2026 Local Finance Council' held on the morning of the 7th at the National Sejong Library in Sejong Special Self-Governing City. Ministry of Planning and Budget

This year, in particular, the council will go beyond merely listening to local project proposals as in previous years. Instead, the Director of the Budget Office and responsible directors and division heads, who are budget experts, will provide customized one-on-one consulting sessions with each local government. Joyongbeom Cho, Director of the Budget Office at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, stated, "We will shift from a passive approach that simply determines whether projects are reflected in the budget, to a productive approach that guides local governments in planning their desired projects in feasible directions."

The Ministry explained that, through this initiative, ideas from the field that local governments wish to pursue will be linked to the national budget and growth strategies, thereby supporting the "Great Leap Forward Led by Local Regions" in Korea.

This council was organized as part of the Ministry's ongoing efforts to communicate directly in the field to enhance the transparency of fiscal management, an initiative that has continued since the beginning of the year. Following projects such as "The 100 Field Listening Project," which involved visiting more than 100 budget sites, and "Town Hall Meetings," where candid public opinions on national finances were gathered, the Ministry plans to listen even more closely to the voices of local governments through this council and reflect them in the 2027 budget proposal.

To ensure substantial consulting, the council will be conducted in a relay format, where meetings with directors and bureau chiefs are followed sequentially by meetings with division heads. Each local government will first discuss the overall direction of budget formulation and major local issues with the Director of the Budget Office and bureau chiefs, and then collaborate in detail on specific issues and improvement plans with the respective division heads for each task.

Vice governors and mayors attending the council stated, "Through a step-by-step approach that moves from macro-level to detailed micro-level discussions, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance can gain deeper insight into local conditions and challenges faced during project implementation, while local governments can more specifically confirm the direction of central government fiscal investment and project review criteria. This is a meaningful opportunity," and they positively evaluated the Ministry's continued efforts to communicate.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance plans to continue listening to the voices of the field by carrying on with "The 100 Field Listening Project" even after the two-day Local Finance Council concludes.

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