Pohang Mayor-elect Park Yong-seon holds a press conference June 25 to brief residents on key municipal issues reviewed by the transition committee. [Pohang mayoral transition committee]
Pohang Mayor-elect Park Yong-seon holds a press conference June 25 to brief residents on key municipal issues reviewed by the transition committee. [Pohang mayoral transition committee]

Pohang Mayor-elect Park Yong-seon on Wednesday unveiled a blueprint for his administration, centering on "normalization" as the governing theme of the ninth directly elected term and pledging to address structural problems in the city's fiscal, economic, welfare and urban planning sectors.

Park held a press conference at the Pohang Advanced Marine R&D Center, where the mayoral transition committee is based, to brief residents on key municipal issues the committee had reviewed. He announced four core normalization tasks: a fiscal normalization declaration, an economic re-launch declaration, a welfare restructuring declaration and an urban redesign declaration.

On fiscal matters, the transition committee found that while Pohang's overall budget has grown, the pace of self-generated revenue growth has slowed while statutory and mandatory expenditures and local government bonds have continued to rise — making it difficult to pursue major campaign pledges and new projects under the current fiscal structure.

To address this, the incoming administration plans to restore fiscal soundness through five principles: introducing a pre-screening system for competitive grant projects, capping the total number of new facility construction projects, reviewing all existing projects from scratch, restructuring expenditures around performance outcomes, and shifting toward a citizen-centered fiscal approach.

On the economic front, overcoming the crisis in the steel industry was identified as the top priority.

The transition committee diagnosed Pohang's steel sector as facing an unprecedented crisis driven by a supply glut from China, tightened US steel tariffs, the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and rising industrial electricity rates.

In response, the administration plans to establish a steel industry crisis response task force, set up a dedicated organizational unit, rebuild a cooperative framework between the city and Posco, advance a hydrogen-based steelmaking national project, and develop a low-carbon steel industry cluster.

In urban planning, the administration will pursue a comprehensive revision of the city plan to reflect the reality of population decline.

The transition committee noted a gap of roughly 200,000 people between the target population of 700,000 set in the 2030 Urban Master Plan and the actual registered population. It warned that the mismatch has fueled overdevelopment, the risk of unsold units and the hollowing out of older city centers.

Key tasks for the new term will include adjusting the planned population figure to realistic levels, revising the land-use system, transitioning to a compact city model, taking preemptive steps against unsold units, normalizing stalled construction sites and expediting the ground-breaking of the Yeongil Bay Bridge.

On welfare, the administration will work to build a sustainable welfare system capable of responding to a super-aged society and a low birth rate.

The transition committee said the share of Pohang residents aged 65 or older reached 24.6 percent as of April this year, meaning the city has already entered super-aged society status.

The administration plans to strengthen the welfare foundation through measures including improving fiscal efficiency in welfare spending, building a care system suited to a super-aged society, tackling the low birth rate and creating a child-friendly city, enhancing community acceptance, and attracting private investment while securing central government funding.

"The transition process is about examining municipal issues and finding solutions, and I will take full responsibility for every decision made in the ninth term," Park said. "I will create changes that residents feel directly — not changes made for show — and together with citizens, set a new standard for Pohang."


kbj7653@heraldcorp.com