Busan is good

Park Heong-joon Says Administrative Integration Is an Engine for the Future of the Republic of Korea and Calls for Governmental Institutional Guarantees

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Busan Metropolitan City (Mayor Park Heong-joon) and Gyeongsangnam-do (Governor Park Wan-su) announced that on the afternoon of the 10th, Kyung Yun-ho, Special Political Affairs Advisor to the Mayor of Busan Metropolitan City, and Kim Young-sam, Director of Policy Planning of Gyeongsangnam-do, visited the Presidential Office and personally delivered the “Joint Proposal on Administrative Integration by Heads of Metropolitan and Provincial Governments (Busan, Gyeongsangnam-do, Daejeon, and Chungcheongnam-do)” to the Senior Secretary for Political Affairs, strongly urging the government to make an active and decisive commitment.

This visit was undertaken swiftly to implement the agreements reached at the “Joint Meeting of Mayors and Governors on Metropolitan and Provincial Administrative Integration” held in Seoul on February 2. It was carried out as a decisive measure to secure a golden window of opportunity to dismantle the excessive concentration in the Seoul metropolitan area and restore the self-sustaining capacity of regional economies.

The joint proposal, which emphasizes the tangible effectiveness of integration, sets forth three core demands aimed at enabling integrated metropolitan and provincial governments to achieve sustainable growth beyond a simple physical merger.

First, enactment of a “Framework Act on Administrative Integration”: The proposal calls on the government to proactively establish clear, nationwide standards and a roadmap applicable across the country, based on the principles of fairness and efficiency, in order to prevent confusion arising from fragmented, region-specific special legislation pursued by individual local governments.

Second, guarantee of autonomy and fiscal decentralization at the level of “local governments”: To allow integrated local governments to independently determine their future and pursue growth, the proposal urges the comprehensive transfer of authority, including personnel management, organizational authority, and development and permitting rights, as well as the establishment of strong independent fiscal capacity through measures such as converting national taxes into local taxes.

Third, creation of a “direct communication forum” presided over by the President: Given that administrative integration requires a strong presidential decision that transcends ministerial silos, the proposal earnestly recommends convening an emergency meeting or public forum where the President and the heads of metropolitan and provincial governments involved in integration can come together to deliberate and identify solutions.

Mayor Park Heong-joon emphasized that “this administrative integration, which combines Busan’s world-class port infrastructure with Gyeongsangnam-do’s aerospace industry at the core of the national space economy, will realize a ‘major transformation of national spatial structure’ and become the most powerful new growth engine driving the Republic of Korea into the future.” He further stated, “If the government guarantees a clear legal and institutional system, we are fully prepared to move forward on the path toward integration immediately, in accordance with the will of 6.6 million residents of the city and province,” expressing strong determination to proceed.