President Park Geun-hye presided over the first meeting of regional development on Thursday and promised to improve people’s quality of life, with each local municipality taking the lead in the policymaking process.

“The new government, from now on, will transparently open all processes related to regional development and change the procedure that is currently led by the central government to be spearheaded by each municipality and the local residents,” Park said.

The Presidential Committee on Regional Development is one of the three presidential policy panels set up since Park’s inauguration. It is joined by 11 ministers, the Governors Association of Korea, the Association of Metropolitan and Provincial Council Chairs and heads of other local associations.

Noting how past regional development policies had centered on infrastructure, Park urged for a change of approach to focus on areas closely connected to everyday life such as education, welfare, culture and the environment.

Park cited Jeju as an example of a local administration with a win-win relationship between the central and municipal government. She said municipalities should strive for competitiveness based on “a creative viewpoint and unique resources,” which wiuld then be supported by the central government to create mutual benefits.

Jeju has seen rapid development based on robust tourism and education projects shored up by the central government through visa reform, deregulation and infrastructure support.

The Park administration has set aside 124 trillion won ($108 billion) for 167 regional projects and businesses to start from the second half of this year.

The committee said they had introduced a new concept to group each region for development, to be based on their geographic features, population and commercial services dispersion.

They will implement a package of projects under six major tasks: expanding infrastructure; creating job opportunities and revitalizing the local economy; improving educational conditions; restoring cultural prosperity; improving welfare and medical services; and balanced regional development.

The projects would include expanding city gas, water supply and drainage systems, fostering flagship businesses, encouraging the relocation of companies to provincial areas, expanding dormitory-type schools and building more emergency medical centers.

The committee will act as the control tower for such measures and will work on reforming the structure of the special accounts for metropolitan and provincial development to enhance municipalities’ autonomy, it said.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)