Park Jong-hyuk (right), speaker of the Incheon Metropolitan Council, meets with National Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik on Friday to request legislative cooperation on key local autonomy issues. [Incheon Metropolitan Council]
Park Jong-hyuk (right), speaker of the Incheon Metropolitan Council, meets with National Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik on Friday to request legislative cooperation on key local autonomy issues. [Incheon Metropolitan Council]

Park Jong-hyuk, speaker of the Incheon Metropolitan Council, has delivered a set of legislative priorities to the National Assembly aimed at strengthening local fiscal capacity and expanding the authority of local councils.

Park attended a meeting between National Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik and the heads of provincial and metropolitan councils held Friday at the National Assembly, where he called on the Assembly to cooperate on key local autonomy issues.

At the meeting, Park put forward three priorities he described as essential to ensuring the long-term sustainability of local self-governance.

Park first made clear that the future response fund the government plans to introduce next year must not be structured in a way that shifts the financial burden onto local governments.

Park also called for a higher national subsidy rate for social welfare spending to strengthen central government responsibility, and urged the Assembly to pass a dedicated local council law before the end of the year to establish the independent standing of local councils.

"Local autonomy without fiscal backing, welfare without national responsibility, and local councils without a solid legal foundation cannot function properly," Park said. "Substantive legislative support from the National Assembly is needed for local self-governance to truly take root."


gilbert@heraldcorp.com