It is clear that local governments and their members have weaker capabilities than those in the Seoul metropolitan area
No discussion on how to overcome this... Despite significant budget and effort, results fall short of expectations
The solution to regional problems lies in the local system and the people who operate it
The spaces we live in are often perceived as physical entities made up of buildings and roads. For these spaces to function properly, they must include the people who reside and live there, as well as systems that operate and manage the space from various perspectives. These systems are administrative structures and members of local government agencies. Just as a computer requires software, hardware, and a skilled user to operate, the development of a city or region depends on these elements working well together. If a city or region is in decline or stagnation, it can be assumed that there is a problem somewhere among these factors.
The term "local extinction" has become familiar, surpassing the gap between the metropolitan area and provinces. It is obvious that efforts must be made to prevent extinction due to population decline. Therefore, the focus shifts to the question of "how." The argument that support must be increased to revive local areas ultimately leads to budget increases. The logic is that improving regional vitality and living conditions through various projects will increase the population. Accordingly, a large amount of budget is being invested in local governments. The scale far exceeds common perceptions.
Last year, the average fiscal independence ratio of the 25 district offices in Seoul was 28.4%. The district with the highest fiscal independence ratio was Seocho-gu at 54.7%. Seocho-gu, with a population of 430,000, has a budget of 746.7 billion KRW this year, which amounts to about 1.73 million KRW per resident. Is this a large budget? Andong-si, where the Gyeongbuk provincial government office is located, has a population of about 158,000, decreasing by about 2,000 people annually over the past five years. Andong’s budget this year is 1.255 trillion KRW. It is surprising that the budget of a basic local government in the provinces exceeds 1 trillion KRW, but even more surprising is that when converted per capita, it amounts to about 8.16 million KRW, five times that of Seocho-gu. In the case of Sinan-gun in Jeonnam, with a population of about 43,000, the budget is approximately 583 billion KRW, which translates to 13.55 million KRW per capita.
Considering the low population density, high welfare demand due to aging, and support for various industrial sectors such as agriculture, it is somewhat reasonable that the per capita budget of basic local governments in the provinces is higher than that of large cities. However, seeing that the gap reaches five times raises the question of whether the underdevelopment of local areas is truly due to a lack of financial support.
Large-scale investments in social overhead capital (SOC) to develop local areas are also underway. In February 2019, the Cheonsa Bridge, connecting Amtaedo and Aphaedo in Sinan-gun, opened. The Cheonsa Bridge, which is 7.26 km long, cost 568.9 billion KRW to build. Adding the 3.5 km Aphae Bridge, which was completed earlier with an investment of 208.9 billion KRW, the total budget reached 777.8 billion KRW. Considering that the Seoul Subway Line 9, known for its overcrowding, has been suffering due to delayed budget allocation of about 8 billion KRW for one 6-car train set, there is an interpretation that the metropolitan area is actually being discriminated against in projects aimed at regional development.
Concerns about the decline of the agricultural population have also been continuously raised. However, in Denmark, which can be considered an advanced agricultural country, the number of farming households decreased by more than 70%, from 200,000 households in the 1990s to 30,000 in 2015. The decline in the agricultural workforce does not equate to a crisis or extinction of agriculture. Yet, we perceive it as a serious threat. We do not consider the expansion of cultivated land per farm or productivity improvements through capital investment resulting from the decrease in the agricultural population. Support for returning farmers and rural migrants may actually promote inefficiency by maintaining a certain level of manpower in the low-productivity agricultural sector.
Despite many years of investment and effort for development, why have the expected effects not been achieved? While external factors such as the concentration of economic power in the metropolitan area and the concentration of higher education and high value-added industries in Seoul have been analyzed for a long time, internal factors have been relatively neglected.
Local government officials and organizations, as administrative agents of the region, should lead regional change and development. However, they have fallen short of expectations. Since the implementation of local autonomy, there were high hopes that a strong sense of belonging would enable proactive local administration, but the results so far have been disappointing. Criticism that seniority based on the date of entry rather than objective evaluation of work performance determines promotion, and that relationships with the head of the local government are more important than ability-based placement, has persisted for a long time. There is also an analysis that this phenomenon arises from the weakening of the personnel rotation system between central and local governments, which has increased organizational silos. It is clear that the overall level and capabilities of local government members are weaker compared to the metropolitan area. However, discussions on how to address and overcome these issues are scarce.
To overcome the weakening of capabilities, it is necessary to listen more to the diverse demands of local residents and to build consensus through sufficient discussion in the decision-making process. However, in reality, decisions are mostly made by a small number of officials rather than through such efforts. In fact, during the application process for large-scale projects such as exemption from preliminary feasibility studies, there was little evidence of diverse opinion gathering and consensus.
The path to solving the regional problems we are experiencing may lie in the local system and the "people" who operate it.
Choi Jun-young, Specialist, Law Firm Yulchon
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