Land, Maritime, Food Authorities to Be Transferred to Local Entities

To revive the economy in provincial areas, authorities over certain tasks of special provincial administrations in three categories -- namely the Regional Construction and Management Offices, the Regional Maritime Affairs and Port Offices, and the Korea Food and Drug Administration -- and about 3,500 employees will be transferred to local governments by the end of the year.

Also, to help local governments attract businesses and investment, the government will grant companies and business groups that move to provincial areas the right to urban development projects.

During a meeting on strategies and policies for regional development presided over by President Lee Myung-bak on Monday, the Ministries of Planning and Finance, Homeland and Marine Affairs, Knowledge and Economy, Public Administration and Security, and the Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development presented the policies each government body is promoting containing the aforementioned points.

According to their plans, out of the special provincial administrations in eight categories examined for the transfer, the government will first transfer three categories -- national land and drainage, maritime and port affairs, and food and medical goods -- within this year. A special provincial administration belongs to the central ministries, and its employees are central government employees.

A total of about 3,551 government employees are being examined for the transfer: 1,465 public servants from the Regional Construction and Management Offices and the National Road Offices in the category of national land and drainage; 1,456 workers from the Regional Maritime Affairs and Port Offices and the Maritime Offices in the category of maritime and port affairs; and 630 employees from the Korea Food and Drug Administration and the Food Inspection Centers in the category of food and medical goods. The scope of transfer will be finalized later.

Tasks of special provincial administrations of the remaining five categories -- small and medium businesses, labor, environment, forestry, and patriots and veterans affairs -- will be transferred to local governments gradually from next year.

The partial transfer of the functions and employees of special provincial administrations to local governments has occurred for the first time since the implementation of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province in 2006 when 140 employees from seven bodies were transferred. This transfer is irrelevant to the transfer of central ministries to the multifunctional administrative city, which was announced during the Roh Moo-hyun administration.

The government also decided to give companies moving to provincial areas the rights to obtain land, develop urban areas, establish actual plans, and construct and sell buildings, so as to enable the companies create business environments as they want.

The current government will maintain the basic frames of the core policies of the former Roh government for balanced national development – namely, the multifunctional administrative city, innovative city and enterprise city -- make complements and improvements.

Accordingly, the government will drive for the privatization of public corporations on the preposition of their transfer to provincial areas. It will also complete the Saemangeum Reclamation Development Project, encompassing Gunsan and Buan in North Jeolla Province, by year 2020, which is 10 years earlier than the initial plan.

At the meeting, President Lee said, “(The government) plans to maintain various existing plans for balanced national development by principle. In provincial areas, they raise concerns that deregulation will be carried out excessively in the capital area and hamper provincial development, but that is not likely to happen.”

The president also stressed that the government should pursue strategies covering broader areas, instead of making separate plans for each small administrative area.