Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province ranked third among provincial governments in both quantitative and qualitative assessments in the Ministry of Interior and Safety's "2026 Joint Evaluation of Local Governments (based on 2025 performance)," achieving its best-ever result and placing among the top tier nationwide.
The joint evaluation is the only comprehensive government-level assessment in which the Ministry of Interior and Safety and 27 other central ministries jointly evaluate local governments' capacity to carry out national policy directives and state-delegated affairs. Special grant allocations are distributed on a tiered basis according to results, and the evaluation covered a total of 112 indicators.
According to central and local government officials Friday, Gangwon Province posted a quantitative achievement rate of 98.96 percent — which measures goal attainment through objective figures — to rank third among provincial governments.
That result significantly exceeded the national average of 96.52 percent across all 17 cities and provinces, and rose 2.06 percentage points from the previous year. The province has posted consecutive gains over the past three years: 95.4 percent in 2024, 96.9 percent in 2025, and 98.96 percent this year.
Gangwon Province drove the improvement by institutionalizing monthly performance reviews and systematically managing progress on each indicator through on-site consulting visits to cities and counties and joint strategy meetings between the provincial and municipal governments.
Gangwon Province also ranked third among provincial governments in the qualitative assessment, which evaluates the originality and excellence of each region's policies, with three of its initiatives selected as outstanding cases: improvement of the regional emergency patient transport and reception system, expansion of cultural access, and personnel exchange among local governments.
The three recognized initiatives were: an overhaul of the regional emergency transport and reception system through the introduction of a "priority mandatory admission" clause in emergency guidelines to address delays in hospital transfers; a cultural access expansion policy that brought cultural performances and programs directly to underserved communities, including villages near the northern civilian control line and former mining areas; and a local government personnel exchange program that broke down barriers between central ministries, cities and counties, and the private sector to support the successful establishment of Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province.
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