The 22nd National Assembly Cheonan·Asan Members of Parliament Introduce 'First Bills' One After Another

Focus on Local Issues Including Land Development Profit Recovery, Establishment of Chungcheong Bank, and Special City Designation
Attention to Capital Region Maintenance Planning Act and Population Reduction in Non-Capital Special Cities

As the 22nd National Assembly begins, members of the National Assembly from the Cheonan and Asan regions are consecutively proposing their 'first bills.'
Members Lee Jung-moon and Bok Ki-wang, who have submitted their first bills, and Lee Jae-gwan, who is scheduled to propose a bill later this week.

As the 22nd National Assembly begins, lawmakers from the Cheonan and Asan regions are actively proposing their 'first bills.'

These bills primarily focus on regional issues such as reinvesting development profits from housing site development projects into public facilities, hearing non-metropolitan opinions during the establishment of the Capital Region Maintenance Plan, designation of special cities, and providing five-day-a-week lunch support at senior centers, as well as national balanced development and livelihood-related legislation.

Among the Cheonan and Asan lawmakers, Lee Jeong-moon (Cheonan-byeong) of the Democratic Party was the first to propose a first bill, representing the 'Cheonan Vitality Dream Package 3 Acts.'

This bill, which amends the Housing Site Development Promotion Act, the Capital Region Maintenance Act, and the Bank Act, is closely related to regional issues.

First, the partial amendment to the Housing Site Development Promotion Act is linked to the 'Completion of the Cheonan-Asan Station R&D Cluster District' and includes provisions to reinvest development profits exceeding the cost of land development into public and cultural sports facilities.

In fact, the 'Asan Tangjeong Housing Development District,' scheduled for completion around June 2025, will house the 'Cheonan-Asan Station R&D Cluster District,' which is expected to include various industrial, research, and administrative institutions such as the Manufacturing Technology Convergence Center, Chungnam International Convention Center, and Cheonan Integrated Government Building. It is also highly anticipated that the National Institute of Dental Research and the Immigration Office, which are currently being attracted, will be located there. With these institutions moving in, the expansion of various public cultural and sports facilities is expected to naturally follow.

The amendment to the Capital Region Maintenance Act aims to actively incorporate non-metropolitan opinions during the establishment of the 'Capital Region Maintenance Plan' to promote national balanced development. The amendment to the Bank Act is also expected to be a bill to reestablish a regional bank following the exit of Chungcheong Bank in 1998.

Democratic Party lawmaker Bok Ki-wang (Asan-gap) also proposed the 'Senior Center Five-Day Lunch Support Act' as his first bill.

According to his office, Chungnam has the lowest average number of days per week providing lunch at senior centers, at 2.9 days, which is significantly less than Chungbuk's 4.4 days, the highest. In response, Rep. Bok specified in the law that providing lunch at senior centers for five or more days per week should be the goal of national funding support, and that national funds should be provided for various items such as labor costs and cooking fuel costs at each senior center.

Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Jae-gwan (Cheonan-eun) is also expected to propose his first bill this week, announcing a 'Special City' bill aimed at resolving regional imbalances.

Currently, the criteria for designating special cities require a population of one million, and only three cities in the metropolitan area and one outside the metropolitan area qualify, leading to criticism that the benefits of the special city system are concentrated only in the metropolitan area.

In response, Rep. Lee is preparing a bill to adjust the population criteria for special city designation to one million for metropolitan areas and 500,000 for non-metropolitan areas, and to allow special city designation by provincial governors even if the population does not exceed 500,000.