Summary of Research Findings from Gyeonggi Development Institute Discussion Forum

▲ "Only one of 10 potential amalgamated municipalities in Gyeonggi Province shows possibility"

"Considering only two variables—the name of the metropolitan city and the location of its headquarters—among the 10 anticipated amalgamated municipalities in Gyeonggi Province, not a single jurisdiction shows majority support from all residents. Moreover, the only region with potential for majority support through future civic engagement and other measures is the Uijeongbu area, which includes Uijeongbu, Dongducheon, Yangju, Pocheon, and Yeoncheon." (Press release from February 11: "Examining the Applicability of Political Proposals for Administrative Restructuring to Gyeonggi Province")

▲ "Political discussions on administrative restructuring amount to dismantling regional communities"

Political discussions on administrative restructuring lead to the dismantling of regional communities, identity confusion, accelerated centralization, retrograde thinking, intensified inter-regional disputes over resource distribution, and ultimately weakened regional competitiveness. (Professor Lee Ki-woo, Graduate School of Law, Inha University)

"Is this the right time to discuss local administrative restructuring? Restructuring the national local administrative system constitutes a fundamental change to the country's operational framework, requiring society to bear substantial social costs through upheaval and conflict." (Kim Sung-ho, Director of Policy Research, National Association of Governors and Mayors; from the "Policy Discussion Forum on Exploring Local Administrative Restructuring Plans" held on April 1)

Discussions on regional governance and decentralization, which are closely related to the broadening of local administrative districts, regional economic zones, and metropolitan area administrative systems. Particularly, theoretical discussions on metropolitan government systems and proposals for alternatives to super-regional local government systems through analysis of international cases are presented. (May, Gyeonggi Development Institute publication: "Strategies and Tasks for Local Decentralization Reform")

▲ "Administrative restructuring is a misdiagnosis and misprescription for local government"

"The administrative restructuring argument advocated by political circles essentially proposes dividing and fragmenting the province, abolishing municipal governments, and simplifying the two-tiered local autonomy system to a single-tiered system.

This stems from misdiagnosis of the problem and results in misprescription. It does not cure the patient but threatens the patient's life. The fundamental problem of Korea's current local administrative system is that provincial governments, except for Gyeonggi Province and Seoul, are too small in scale, while conversely, cities and counties are too large in scale." (May 22, Professor Lee Ki-woo, Graduate School of Law, Inha University; "Discussion Forum on Exploring Desirable Directions for Local Administrative Restructuring")

▲ "Function adjustment between central and local government should take priority over eliminating local government"

"Evaluating academic and political discussions on local administrative restructuring, considering the severity of imbalance between central and local government in Korea, it becomes clear that function adjustment between central and local government is more urgent than arguments for provincial abolition.

Therefore, the direction Korea should pursue in reforming its local administrative system going forward is to accelerate local decentralization while implementing partial local administrative restructuring. Thus, to accelerate local decentralization, more rigorous standards must be established, and on that basis, the reallocation of functions and responsibilities among 'national-regional-municipal' tiers should be undertaken."
(May 29, Cho Sung-ho, Research Fellow, Gyeonggi Development Institute; "Local Decentralization and Local Administrative Restructuring in the New Administration" Symposium)