Diplomacy Journal Kim Tae Yeon | President Lee Jae-myung presided over the 10th Central-Local Cooperation Council on 26 August at Chungmu Hall in the presidential office, according to a written briefing by presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo [Han Sung-sook], Finance Minister Koo Yun-chul, Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin, Interior and Safety Minister Yun Ho-jung, Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan, and other senior officials, along with 16 provincial governors and mayors including Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae, who also chairs the Governors Association of Korea.

Beginning with this session, the council's membership was expanded to strengthen representation from local governments at the basic administrative level, with new participants including Asan Mayor Oh Se-hyun of South Chungcheong Province and Boseong County Governor Kim Chul-woo of the Jeonnam-Gwangju special metropolitan area.

In opening remarks, President Lee congratulated the launch of the ninth popularly elected local governments and, building on more than three decades of accumulated local autonomy achievements, called for preparing a new era of local governance combining greater resident participation, stronger regional solidarity, and faster administrative innovation. He emphasized that balanced development is no longer a matter of choice or favor, but an essential strategy for South Korea's survival and continued growth.

Lee said the diversification of cutting-edge strategic industries, symbolized by three mega-projects, would serve as a key to opening an era of shared growth across the country, calling on central and local governments to work as one team to build an "irreplaceable" South Korea where all citizens can be happy.

Agenda items

The council discussed five agenda items: cooperation measures between central and local governments under the ninth popularly elected administration; measures to promote locally-led growth; a plan to cultivate regional growth engines linked to the three mega-projects; fiscal investment directions for balanced regional growth; and revisions to the operation of the Central-Local Cooperation Council. The council also discussed local governments' own strategies for locally-led growth.

Under the cooperation measures for the ninth administration, the central and local governments agreed to strengthen joint discussion of major local policy issues and for the central government to take a more proactive administrative role in supporting locally-led growth.

The Office for Government Policy Coordination presented a plan for locally-led growth centered on redesigning national land around growth hubs in a "5 poles, 3 special zones" framework, involving the redesign of national spatial planning, formation of business investment and locally-led economic zones, package support for residential conditions, and redesign of preferential treatment systems for local areas, to be pursued across the government.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy presented a plan to designate three to four regional growth engines per zone based on corporate investment, regional strengths and growth potential, outlining a new industrial growth strategy centered on local regions. The plan calls for concentrated support for these regional growth engines and "mega special zones" through a seven-part policy support package covering fiscal, financial, tax, institutional, technological, talent and infrastructure areas, aiming to create a new industrial map that draws companies and skilled talent to local regions.

The Ministry of Planning and Finance outlined fiscal investment priorities and reforms to support locally-led growth, including focused investment in regional strategic industries and jobs, improved living conditions, and healthcare and education, alongside expanded local government autonomy and stronger preferential treatment for local areas, aimed at forming economic and living zones in the "5 poles, 3 special zones" framework and creating quality jobs to attract young people.

Local government presentations

Local governments also presented their own strategies for locally-led growth based on regional conditions and strengths. Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province Governor Woo Sang-ho said young people in Gangwon were newly hopeful following a commitment by SK to invest in the province, adding that the province had reached agreement with local university presidents on tailored talent development. He also requested that the Ministry of National Defense take charge of mine clearance in border areas where the province hopes to build resident-participation renewable energy facilities, citing questions over who would handle the clearance and cover its costs.

North Gyeongsang Governor Lee Cheol-woo drew laughter from attendees with a remark contrasting the fortunes of different regions' elected leaders, before outlining plans to promote a food industry leveraging the province's agricultural resources in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and requesting that the province be considered if the Korean Food Promotion Institute is relocated outside the capital region.

Cho Jae-gu, head of Nam-gu District in Daegu and a representative of the Korean Association of Mayors, County Governors and District Chiefs, thanked the president for including local government representatives at the meeting, saying he had requested the opportunity on behalf of 227 mayors, county governors and district chiefs nationwide. He pledged that local governments would fulfill their role of listening to residents' concerns without regard to party affiliation.

Closing remarks

In closing the meeting, President Lee emphasized the importance of the role played by basic and local governments, noting that despite differing party affiliations or political positions, local officials remain agents entrusted by the public and must work for better lives for citizens and the country's future. He said that regardless of their respective positions, officials should cooperate to the fullest extent to improve residents' lives, adding that strengthening decentralization and balanced regional development remains the most powerful means of addressing problems caused by concentration in the greater Seoul area.