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Emergency Joint Meeting of Mayors and Provincial Governors Held on Metropolitan Government Integration

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) announced that it held an emergency joint meeting of mayors and provincial governors of cities and provinces pursuing the integration of metropolitan governments at 4:00 p.m. today (Feb. 2) at the Kensington Hotel in Yeouido, Seoul.

The meeting brought together a total of six mayors and provincial governors, including those from Busan and Gyeongnam, as well as Daejeon and Chungnam, and Gyeongbuk. The Chairperson of the Mayors and Governors Association of Korea, the Mayor of Incheon Metropolitan City, also attended. They exchanged views on the standards, principles, and overall direction of metropolitan government integration.
*The Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, the Governor of Jeollanam-do, and the Acting Mayor of Daegu Metropolitan City were unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts.

This joint meeting was proposed by Busan and Gyeongnam together with the release of their joint position statement on Jan. 28, and was convened swiftly as each city and province responded immediately.

Busan and Gyeongnam have presented the principle that administrative integration should not be driven by short-term incentives or a government-led push for speed, but should instead proceed based on residents’ choice and a solid legal and institutional foundation.

The main purpose of the meeting was to ensure that other cities and provinces involved in integration discuss these principles together and take the lead in moving forward, thereby breaking away from the centralized administrative system and transforming it into a truly decentralized local governance framework.

The mayors and provincial governors in attendance shared the view that if integration proceeds in reliance on temporary fiscal support from the government, it will be difficult to ensure sustainability after integration.

In particular, they agreed that enacting legislation that commonly defines the core elements of decentralization—such as fiscal authority and local autonomy—is a more reasonable approach to ensuring that integrated local governments have real status and authority. They also concurred on the need to organize clear standards and principles for integration.

During the closed-door meeting, the mayors and provincial governors reached agreement on two items: first, to request that President Lee Jaemyung convene an emergency meeting with mayors and provincial governors for administrative integration as soon as possible; and second, that it is undesirable for the eight cities and provinces pursuing integration to proceed in a fragmented and uncoordinated manner, and that a common legislative bill guaranteeing fiscal decentralization and local autonomy should be established.

Mayor Park Heong-joon stated, “To break away from the capital region’s one-pole dominance, a fundamental integration reform must be carried out that guarantees substantive local autonomy and fiscal authority.” He added, “It is not desirable for the central government to unilaterally push forward at speed without gathering opinions from local governments, and consistent standards and principles for administrative integration must be established.”