Large City Mayors' Conference Demands Local Autonomy

The Large City Mayors' Conference held a final report meeting on "Special Cases for Large Cities with Populations of 500,000 or More" at the Suwon City Hall situation room on the 30th, emphasizing the necessity of a local autonomy system.

The meeting was attended by heads of seven municipal governments including Suwon, Anyang, Bucheon, Ansan, and Yongin in Gyeonggi Province, as well as Pohang in North Gyeongsang Province and Changwon in South Gyeongsang Province.

▲ Large City Mayors' Conference

Through the meeting, they argued that local government heads are currently positioned as subordinate administrative bodies to the central government and execute most of their duties according to the central government's directives.

According to the survey results, approximately 75% of the work performed by local government heads consists of national government tasks, while only 25% represents work performed as local government heads elected by residents, the conference stated.

Accordingly, to achieve local autonomy, delegated national tasks must be completely abolished, and when it is necessary for the national government to handle national affairs through cities, provinces, cities, counties, or districts, the National Assembly must enact them by law and then entrust them to local governments with corresponding budget allocation, they said.

Meanwhile, the nationwide Large City Mayors' Conference includes 11 local governments in addition to the municipalities that attended on this day, including Seongnam and Goyang in Gyeonggi Province, Cheongju in North Chungcheong Province, and Jeonju in North Jeolla Province.