Localization Era Preparedness Requires Introduction of Metropolitan Federation-Type Special Autonomous Districts in Seoul Capital Area

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] As the government has established legal grounds for the introduction of 'metropolitan federation-type special autonomous districts,' research results proposing methods to implement this in the Seoul Capital Area have emerged.

The Gyeonggi Research Institute presented a plan for establishing a Seoul Capital Area Metropolitan Administration Agency in its report titled 'Plans for Establishing a Seoul Capital Area Metropolitan Administration Agency,' after reviewing metropolitan federation-type special autonomous districts and the Seoul Capital Area's metropolitan administrative system.

In the era of globalization and localization, advanced nations' local governments have established and operated metropolitan federation-type special autonomous districts to efficiently resolve metropolitan issues.

Our nation has also made efforts to establish a metropolitan administrative system for efficient management of the Seoul Capital Area, but poor results have weakened Seoul Capital Area competitiveness and deteriorated residents' quality of life. Notable examples include the 'Seoul Capital Area Administrative Council,' a metropolitan administrative council, and the 'Seoul Capital Area Transportation Authority,' a local government association, which were established and operated but abolished due to poor effectiveness.

As a result, despite 30 years since the implementation of local autonomy, the Seoul Capital Area faces increasing difficulties in resolving metropolitan issues such as housing, transportation, and environment due to administrative silos between Seoul, Gyeonggi Province, and Incheon.

To introduce a powerful metropolitan federation-type special autonomous district, the government specified the introduction of metropolitan federation-type special autonomous districts as a major task in its 2018 Comprehensive Plan for Local Autonomy and Decentralization. Furthermore, in the March 2019 comprehensive revision of the Local Autonomy Act submitted to the National Assembly by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, legal grounds for introducing metropolitan federation-type special autonomous districts were established.

Cho Sung-ho, senior research fellow at the Gyeonggi Research Institute, advocates for the introduction of special autonomous districts, a representative community-oriented governance system, to address the absence of metropolitan administration in the Seoul Capital Area, and divided the basic establishment plan into a short-term plan (focused on metropolitan projects) and a mid-to-long-term plan (metropolitan planning + metropolitan projects).

In the short-term plan, the Seoul Capital Area special autonomous district's functions and affairs would be metropolitan transportation, metropolitan environment, metropolitan disaster management, metropolitan tourism, metropolitan industry, and metropolitan healthcare, with funding composed of contributions from member local governments and central government support.

In the mid-to-long-term plan, the Seoul Capital Area special autonomous district's functions and affairs would be metropolitan planning, metropolitan transportation, metropolitan healthcare and welfare, and metropolitan disaster management, with funding composed of contributions from member local governments, central government support, and property income and interest revenue of the special autonomous district.

To strengthen the functions of such metropolitan federation-type special autonomous districts, the following are necessary: ▲Transfer of national roads, rivers, and environmental sectors' central special local administrative agencies, ▲Transfer of central authority and projects for metropolitan area transportation in large metropolitan areas, ▲Transfer of planning authority for the Seoul Capital Area's metropolitan planning (Seoul Capital Area Adjustment Plan), and others.

Senior Research Fellow Cho Sung-ho stated, "For a metropolitan federation-type special autonomous district to be introduced, a comprehensive revision of the Local Autonomy Act that includes provisions for establishing and operating special autonomous districts must be passed by the National Assembly."