Executive Governor Kim Hak-hong attends the 59th general meeting of the Korea City and Provincial Governors Association

Proposal to establish a regionally-led immigration office and expand authority such as regional-specific visas and metropolitan visas

Maeil Ilbo = Reporter Kwon Young-mo | In Gyeongsangbuk-do, Executive Governor Kim Hak-hong attended the 59th extraordinary general meeting of the Korea City and Provincial Governors’ Association held at the Paradise Hotel in Busan on the 19th following Governor Lee Cheol-woo’s business trip to China and Mongolia to advance into overseas markets.

At the general meeting on this day, follow-up measures for the 58th General Assembly and the 6th Central Regional Cooperation Meeting held in February were reported and major agenda items to be submitted to the next Central Regional Cooperation Meeting were discussed.

The follow-up measures for the 58th General Assembly are: ▲Reorganization of laws to strengthen autonomous legislative rights and enhance regional autonomy ▲Measures to expand local independent financial resources ▲Improvement of the central investment review system and feasibility study system (draft) ▲New agenda and submission procedures for the Central-Local Cooperation Council The follow-up measures of the 6th Central-Local Cooperation Conference include ▲a reasonable improvement plan for the standard labor cost system, ▲a plan for rationalizing education finances, and ▲reorganization of the functions of special local administrative agencies.

Among the topics discussed were ▲ the introduction of a regionally tailored foreign policy and ▲ the local agenda (draft) of the Central Regional Cooperation Council. In particular, discussions on foreign policy were heated.

Provincial and provincial governors cited problems such as sporadic operation of government committees on foreign policy, confusion due to policies scattered across various ministries, and absence of local government participation, and requested active improvement from the central government.

In addition, provincial and provincial governors expressed deep consensus and expectations regarding the necessity of holding the ‘2024 Provincial and Provincial Governors Policy Conference’.

Policies that were unanimously proposed by city and provincial governors could not even be submitted to the Central-Local Cooperation Conference due to differences of opinion among ministries, and there was no system for the central government to accept important agendas promoted by local governments and turn them into national agendas. Through the conference, the trust of local governments was improved and We hoped that this would be a venue to discuss government policy directions together.

Administrative Governor Kim Hak-hong, who attended the general meeting on this day, said, “There are limits to the development of policies that are consistent with local circumstances with the central government-led foreign policy,” and added, “The Ministry of Justice, which is in charge of foreign policy, is pursuing policies focused on crackdown and regulation of immigrants. “Not only that, but the policies of each ministry are similar and overlapping, causing inefficiency,” he pointed out the problem.

He then suggested, “For communication and cooperation between the central and local governments, a new immigration office should be established in a local area, the opinions of cities and provinces should be actively reflected when establishing and executing policies for foreigners, and region-led metropolitan visas should be actively introduced.”

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