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Yeonghonam Governors’ Cooperation Meeting Held Today (1st)… Mayor Park Heong-joon Calls for Transcendent Cooperation to Rebuild Korea

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that the 19th Yeonghonam Governors’ Cooperation Meeting was held today (1st) at 4:00 p.m. at Changwon Convention Center (CECO) in Gyeongnam, with the attendance of Mayor Park and governors from the 8 cities and provinces of Yeonghonam (Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Ulsan, Jeonbuk, Jeonnam, Gyeongbuk, Gyeongnam).

○ The Yeonghonam Governors’ Cooperation Meeting was established in 1998 with the aim of promoting co-prosperity through mutual exchanges and cooperation among the 8 Yeonghonam regions and leading balanced national development, and has been held annually since.

This year’s meeting was convened to share the outcomes of the Yeonghonam Governors’ Cooperation Meeting, discuss future collaboration strategies, and work to reflect the cooperative projects and major pending issues of Yeonghonam regions in the policy pledges of candidates for the 21st presidential election.

At the meeting, participants deliberated and approved 8 inter-regional cooperative projects and 8 region-specific key issues, and selected the Governor of Jeonnam as the next chair.

○ The inter-regional cooperative projects included:

• 1.Establishment of the Ministry of Population and Regional Balanced Development (tentative name) at the vice prime minister level (proposed by Busan)

• 2.Early commencement of Dalbit Railway construction (Daegu)

• 3.Expedited implementation of Dalbit Railway construction (Gwangju)

• 4.Elevation of the Korea Forest Service to the status of a Ministry of Forestry (tentative name) (Ulsan)

• 5.Construction of the Jeonju–Daegu Expressway (Jeonbuk)

• 6.Creation of a Global Maritime, Tourism, and Cultural Hub along the southern coast (Jeonnam)

• 7.Construction of a single-track electrified railway between Jeonju and Gimcheon (Gyeongbuk)

• 8.Enactment of the Special Act on Southern Coast Development (Gyeongnam)

○ The region-specific key issues included:

• 1.Enactment of the Busan Global Hub City Special Act (Busan)

• 2.National fiscal support for the construction of the Daegu-Gyeongbuk (TK) New Airport (Daegu)

• 3.Establishment of AI Model City ‘The BRAIN Gwangju’ (Gwangju)

• 4.Enactment of the Special Act on Supporting and Utilizing the 2028 Ulsan International Garden Expo (Ulsan)

• 5.Establishment of a national support system for hosting the 2036 Jeonju Summer Olympics (Jeonbuk)

• 6.Development of the Solar City AI Energy New Town (Jeonnam)

• 7.Joint response for hosting the 2025 APEC Summit (Gyeongbuk)

• 8.Creation of the Gyeongnam Free Economic Special Self-Governing Province (Gyeongnam)

After the deliberations, a Joint Statement of Yeonghonam Governors was issued, proclaiming a commitment to a new future for Korea led by local governments, and urging the government to incorporate these proposals into presidential campaign pledges and to actively support and implement policies for balanced regional development and co-prosperity.

○ The Joint Statement included calls for:

• ●Constitutional amendment for local autonomy

• ●Increase in the statutory share of local allocation tax

• ●Expedited implementation of the second phase of public institution relocations

• ●Improvement of the preliminary feasibility study system for projects outside the Seoul metropolitan area

• ●Delegation of authority to attract large-scale investments

• ●Decentralization of development authority to local governments

• ●Inclusion of the 8 inter-regional cooperative projects and 8 region-specific key issues in presidential campaign pledges to achieve balanced national development led by Yeonghonam

Meanwhile, the 8 Yeonghonam regions plan to further solidify their development by continuing the Joint Research Project for Discovering Strategies and Tasks for Yeonghonam Development currently underway.

Mayor Park stated, “We stand at a historic juncture where we can reestablish the fundamental framework of our nation,” and emphasized, “Let us establish leadership to rebuild the Republic of Korea and move forward on the path of innovative growth by transcending all boundaries of region, ideology, and political affiliation to work together.”