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

North Gyeongsang Province has selected 10 priority public institutions to recruit — with the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and the Korea Racing Authority topping the list — as it ramps up efforts ahead of the government's announcement of its second round of public institution relocation plans.

The provincial government held a progress briefing on the second-phase public institution relocation drive at its headquarters Thursday, attended by members of the public institution recruitment committee, department heads and officials from related organizations.

Since the government announced plans on Sept. 3 to consolidate and relocate public institutions in a second phase, the province has analyzed factors including linkages with local industries and potential functional cooperation with institutions already relocated to the North Gyeongsang Innovation City, ultimately selecting 10 priority recruitment targets.

The 10 institutions are the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation, the Korea Racing Authority, the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology, the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement, the National Heritage Promotion Agency, the Food Safety Policy Development Institute, the Korea Construction Equipment Safety Management Agency, the Aviation Safety Technology Institute, the Korea Electronics Technology Institute, and four postal-service-related organizations under the Postal Facilities Management Group.

The province plans to designate the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation and the Korea Racing Authority as its top-priority targets and mount a focused campaign highlighting the necessity and expected benefits of relocating them to North Gyeongsang Province.

Alongside this, the province has begun laying the groundwork to help relocating institutions settle in smoothly.

Working with Gimcheon, the province surveyed available spaces in and around the innovation city, secured 13 candidate sites for temporary offices for early-moving institutions, and forwarded the relevant materials to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

Residential supply will be expanded in stages. The innovation city is set to see apartments built sequentially — 768 units in 2027, 349 in 2028, 581 in 2029 and 7,486 in 2030.

The province also plans to expand medical, transportation and cultural facilities. It will pursue the establishment of a branch of Gimcheon Medical Center to ease inconvenience caused by limited pediatric and after-hours care, and aims to improve daily convenience through expanded shuttle bus and public bicycle services and the development of public parking lots.

"When public institutions relocate to regions with a relevant industrial base, research, demonstration and commercialization can form a virtuous cycle," North Gyeongsang Province Governor Lee Cheol-woo said. "We will actively promote North Gyeongsang Province's industrial strengths to the central government and the National Assembly, and do our utmost to attract public institutions."


kbj7653@heraldcorp.com