"Lee Jaemyung of Chungnam" Park Jeonghyun: Innovation Leadership Rooted in Buyeo

Farmer Allowance, Goodtrae Pay, and Climate Tech Valley...
The Textbook of Change Originating from Local Communities

Jung Hyun Park, Mayor of Buyeo County / Buyeo County

With about seven months remaining until the June 3 local elections next year, Park Jeonghyun, the governor of Buyeo County, known as the "Lee Jaemyung of Chungnam," is drawing attention.

Park was the first person to plant the Democratic Party flag in Buyeo, once called the heartland of conservatism. He is a practical leader who spread locally initiated policy innovations such as the "Farmer Allowance," "Goodtrae Pay," and the "Climate Tech Valley" nationwide.

Park Jeonghyun stands at the center of the movement where local experiments are transforming the discourse of central politics.

According to The Asia Business Daily's coverage, Park has expressed his ambition to "open the future of Korea through local innovation," and is reportedly preparing to officially announce his candidacy for the Chungnam governor position in next year’s local elections.

He has consistently been mentioned as a strong candidate for the next Chungnam governor since the early days of his second term.

In the 7th local elections in 2018, Park was elected as Buyeo’s first Democratic Party governor, winning 53.8% of the vote.

It was a symbolically significant event in the region’s political history for the Democratic Party to secure a victory in Buyeo, the hometown of the late Kim Jongpil, a former leader and a symbol of conservatism.

In the 2022 election, even amid the conservative wave following the launch of the Yoon Sukyeol administration, he was re-elected with an overwhelming 62% of the vote, proving his reputation as "someone who gets things done better than the party itself."

His signature policy, the Farmer Allowance system, is considered a successful example of local administration.

Under his philosophy that "farmers also need basic income," he provided 800,000 won to single-person households and 1.35 million won to three-person households, expanding the program throughout Chungnam Province.

This welfare policy, which started at the local level, became the standard for national agricultural policy, spreading across the country and earning the reputation of the "Farmer Allowance = Buyeo Model."

At the time, Park Jeonghyun, the governor of Buyeo County, explained the damage situation to President Lee Jae-myung, then leader of the Democratic Party, during his visit to Buyeo County, which suffered flood damage last year. Governor Park is classified as a staunch supporter of President Lee Jae-myung in the Chungnam political circles, having supported him in the 2022 presidential election. / Buyeo County

Another symbol of innovation is "Goodtrae Pay."

Goodtrae Pay is a local currency that circulates spending within the region, with more than 100,000 users-surpassing the population of Buyeo itself.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, small business sales increased by nearly 30%, demonstrating its effectiveness as an economic safeguard.

Currently, several local governments, including Jung-gu in Daejeon and Iksan in North Jeolla Province, are benchmarking this system, recognizing it as a leading example of a region revitalizing its own economy.

Park has also shown determination in environmental policy.

Immediately after taking office in his seventh term as an elected official, he declared the so-called "Three No Policies": banning the import of industrial waste, prohibiting indiscriminate solar panel installations, and restricting large-scale livestock farms.

He processed all 30,000 tons of illegal waste in Chochon-myeon using 9.5 billion won in national and provincial funds, and ultimately canceled the construction of the Hongsan cogeneration plant after a legal battle.

He stated, "A clean Buyeo was a promise that could not be compromised."

Additionally, Buyeo County signed an agreement last year with Namangan Province in Uzbekistan and is currently developing the "K-Buyeo Goodtrae Agricultural Specialization Complex" on a 1,000-hectare scale.

This is the first time in Korea that a local government is directly operating an overseas agricultural base.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has designated this as a representative ODA (Official Development Assistance) model, highlighting it as the "Buyeo-style international cooperation model."

On September 23, Park unveiled the "Geumgang Climate Tech Valley" vision, a future strategic industry initiative, at the National Assembly's "National Growth Fund Local Development Strategy Forum."

The plan is to foster the Geumgang area in Chungnam as a hub for AI, bio, and climate tech industries, and to allocate 10 trillion won from the government's 150 trillion won National Growth Fund to create the "Chungnam Growth Fund," focusing investments in advanced, bio, and climate (ABC) industries.

This initiative consists of five core projects: offshore wind power, circular economy for waste batteries, carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), low-carbon logistics, and others. It aims to create 10,000 jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3 million tons by 2030.

Park stated, "Politics is ultimately completed by the judgment of the people," adding, "For now, I will focus on improving the lives of county residents and steadily prepare for the future of Chungnam."

Local political circles describe him as "a practical figure who has grown from an administrator of a small city to a national policy leader."

His administrative track record-from the Farmer Allowance to Goodtrae Pay and now the Climate Tech Valley-is rewriting the story of local politics not only in Buyeo, but also in Chungnam and across Korea.