Gangneung City Makes Major Leap in the 'Era of Special Autonomy'... Hometown Love Donations Near 4 Billion Won

Gangneung City in Gangwon Province (Mayor Kim Hongkyu) has designated 2026 as the year to fully leverage special regulatory exemptions, accelerating efforts to realize substantial special autonomy that citizens can experience and to strengthen the dynamism of the local economy.

A view of Gangneung City Hall.

First, Gangneung City aims to raise a cumulative total of 4 billion won through the Hometown Love Donation Program this year and to achieve 700 million won in sales of local specialty return gifts, with the goal of enhancing citizen welfare and revitalizing the local economy.

The Gangneung Hometown Love Donation Program entered a stable growth trajectory in 2025, its third year of implementation, with cumulative donations surpassing 2.6 billion won.

Accordingly, the city plans to focus on increasing visits by donors to Gangneung in 2026. It will expand agreements with private companies in various fields such as culture, tourism, and experiences, and continuously broaden linked benefits-such as discounts-so that donors who visit and stay in Gangneung can tangibly feel their appreciation.

In 2025, the city signed agreements with private tourism companies including Arte Museum and Haslla Art World to offer donors discounted admission. On November 5, the city amended relevant ordinances to provide institutional benefits, such as free or 20% to 40% discounted admission to seven public tourism facilities including Imhae Natural Recreation Forest, thereby discovering a range of new benefits.

Additionally, in December 2025, the city successfully completed fundraising ahead of schedule for three designated donation projects (support for travel and cultural experiences for children from vulnerable groups, support for remodeling child care facilities, and support for improving the environment of local children's centers). These projects will be fully implemented to provide direct assistance to at-risk children who face limitations in education, care, and emotional support, ensuring that both guardians and field workers can experience meaningful change.

Furthermore, based on its outstanding performance in local government regulatory innovation evaluations from 2023 to 2025, the city will continue to strengthen regulatory improvements focused on citizens’ livelihoods and on-the-ground issues in 2026.

Existing registered administrative regulations will be re-examined, and unnecessary regulations that no longer fit the changing times will be boldly eliminated, while new regulations will be thoroughly reviewed. The city plans to improve regulations that hinder citizens’ quality of life and corporate growth.

The Mobile Regulatory Reporting Center will operate at least once a month to directly listen to regulatory difficulties faced by local businesses and small merchants, and will continuously identify regulatory improvement tasks in coordination with central government ministries. Outstanding cases of regulatory improvement based on proactive administration will also be identified each quarter to spread a culture of regulatory innovation throughout the organization.

Gangneung City will also systematically strengthen its capacity regarding the Gangwon Special Act to enhance the institutional and administrative effectiveness of special autonomy.

If the third amendment passes the National Assembly, the city plans to lay the groundwork to apply additional high-value special exemptions-beyond the current ones in forestry, farmland, environment, and national defense-to various projects in the economic, tourism, and regional development sectors.

In addition, the city intends to continuously identify strategic exemptions and establish a customized special autonomy model that reflects Gangneung’s unique characteristics and circumstances, ensuring that special autonomy functions as a practical driver of regional development rather than remaining a merely declarative system.

A Gangneung City official stated, “We will continue the achievements of special autonomy from 2025 into 2026, implementing special autonomy in a way that delivers tangible results for our citizens.”