Suwon Mayor Yom Tae-young Holds Talks with Chair Kim Soon-eun of Autonomous Decentralization Commission

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] The Korea Association of Mayors, Governors and County Heads (Chairman Yom Tae-young, Mayor of Suwon) held talks on the 9th at the Government Complex Seoul with Kim Soon-eun, Chair of the Presidential Committee on Decentralization of Government Functions, to discuss current issues in local decentralization.

Yom Tae-young, the association's chairman, and Hwang Myeong-seon, standing vice chairman (Mayor of Nonsan), expressed concerns over the decentralization initiatives being pursued by the Decentralization Committee being implemented with a focus on metropolitan governments.

Chairman Yom pointed out problems with decentralization tasks centered on provinces and cities that exclude municipal governments, such as the implementation of Phase 1 fiscal decentralization, the introduction of local autonomous police systems, and the establishment of central-local cooperation meetings (related to the Second State Council). He also compared the financial decentralization relationship between metropolitan and municipal governments regarding provincial subsidy allocations as an uneven playing field. As a solution, he proposed the establishment of a "committee for fiscal burden consultations between metropolitan and municipal governments."

Finally, he asked Chair Kim to ensure that future committee activities sufficiently consider municipal governments to promote balanced local decentralization.

Chair Kim responded, "I will pursue fiscal decentralization that local autonomous entities can sufficiently agree with."