[Provided by North Gyeongsang Province]
[Provided by North Gyeongsang Province]

North Gyeongsang Province hosted a National Assembly seminar Wednesday on strategies to attract public institutions slated for a second round of relocations, drawing about 100 participants — including lawmakers, experts and government officials — to the first small conference room of the National Assembly, in collaboration with the office of lawmaker Song Eon-seog.

The province organized the seminar to strengthen cooperation among the private sector, government and the political community ahead of a planned September release of a public institution relocation road map, and to share information on recruitment efforts and explore final response strategies.

The event opened with remarks by Song and a congratulatory address by Vice Governor for Administrative Affairs Hwang Myeong-seok, followed by a progress report on the relocation initiative and a series of presentations and discussions.

Lee Sang-su, director of North Gyeongsang Province's Local Era Policy Bureau, said the province had been actively promoting the advantages of relocating to the region to executives, employees and labor unions at more than 40 institutions targeted for recruitment. He added that the province had also briefed central government ministries, including the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, on the policy's links to the five-pole, three-special balanced development initiative and the potential for clustering advanced industries in the region.

In the ensuing discussion, Heo Mun-gu, a member of the province's public institution relocation recruitment committee, said North Gyeongsang Province should position itself as a strategic hub for realizing the five-pole, three-special growth engine framework, national advanced strategic industries, global supply chains and economic security — built on its foundations in semiconductors, secondary batteries, future mobility and biotech.

Kim Seong-do, chairman of the National Innovation City Labor Union Council, said innovation cities need to surpass a critical threshold of at least 50,000 residents — and ideally 100,000 — to become self-sustaining. He called for active attention and support from metropolitan and national authorities, beyond local governments, on residential conditions such as healthcare and education.

Son Hui-jun, an emeritus professor at Cheongju University, said many recent studies analyzing the outcomes of the first relocation round had found results fell short of expectations. He stressed that preventing innovation cities from becoming isolated like islands was essential.

Na Jung-gyu, head of the research division at the North Gyeongsang Research Institute, said the second round of public institution relocations should not be treated as a compensatory policy of distributing Greater Seoul-based institutions to the regions, but rather as a redeployment strategy to move functions to the locations best suited to carry them out, thereby raising national productivity.

Song, who hosted the event, said the second round of relocations should not be a simple regional distribution exercise but should instead be pursued in a way that maximizes synergies centered on innovation cities that have already been established.

Vice Governor Hwang said the province would pursue the second round of public institution relocations as a policy focused on people actually settling in the region and revitalizing the economy and jobs — unlike the first round. He pledged to develop the most effective relocation plan by comprehensively considering North Gyeongsang Province's industrial base and future strategies.


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