Governor Lee Jae-myung Announces Plan to Relocate 7 Public Institutions to Northeastern Gyeonggi Province
[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park Noh-hoon] To promote balanced development of the northern and eastern regions of Gyeonggi Province, the province is pursuing the relocation of seven institutions under its jurisdiction. The institutions scheduled for relocation are the Gyeonggi Research Institute, Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation, Gyeonggi Economic Science Promotion Agency, Gyeonggi Agriculture and Fisheries Promotion Agency, Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation, Gyeonggi Housing and Urban Development Corporation, and Gyeonggi Women and Family Foundation.
Governor Lee Jae-myung held a press conference on the 17th at Gyeonggi Province Government and announced the third phase public institution relocation plan.
The governor stated, "The slow development of the northern and eastern regions of Gyeonggi is due to long-standing restrictions on regional development caused by overlapping regulations such as the Capital Region Management Planning Act, military security concerns, and water resource management," and added, "Whether it is people or regions, if they are making special sacrifices for the community, providing commensurate compensation aligns with the value of fairness, and I believe this is the path to balanced development."
This is the third public institution relocation for the province. Previously, in December 2019, Gyeonggi Province signed a memorandum of understanding with Goyang City to relocate three public institutions—Gyeonggi Tourism Organization, Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, and Gyeonggi Lifelong Education Promotion Agency—to the 'Goyang Tourism Culture Complex' by 2025.
In September of last year, five public institutions—Gyeonggi Transportation Corporation, Gyeonggi Jobs Foundation, Gyeonggi Urban Market and Commercial District Promotion Agency, Gyeonggi Environment and Energy Promotion Agency, and Gyeonggi Social Service Agency—had their headquarters selected through municipal and county recruitment, with relocations currently underway to Yangju City, Dongducheon City, Yangpyeong County, Gimpo City, and Yeoju City, respectively.
The seven institutions to undergo relocation in the third phase were selected after comprehensively considering residents' demands and institutional characteristics. The seven institutions have approximately 1,100 employees in total, a scale comparable to the combined number of employees from the first and second phase relocation institutions.
The target relocation areas will be selected through recruitment from 17 municipalities in the northern and eastern border areas and nature conservation zones of Gyeonggi Province, excluding overlapping regions. The province plans to establish recruitment plans starting this month, promote recruitment by institution, conduct reviews in April, and announce the municipalities selected as relocation targets around May.
The province will form a review committee composed of external experts to ensure fair and transparent assessment, and will select relocation areas by comprehensively considering balanced development, project relevance, accessibility, and cooperation with provincial government policies. To prevent overheated competition between municipalities and avoid disadvantages due to different fiscal scales, the province has decided to exclude the fiscal burden portion of municipalities from the review criteria.
Governor Lee Jae-myung emphasized, "Gyeonggi Province will continue to carefully monitor and provide special consideration to ensure that even when certain regulations are inevitable for the benefit of all, specific regions do not unilaterally bear the burden for the whole."
Meanwhile, the Gyeonggi Research Institute, which handles major provincial policy issues and future industry innovation research, the Gyeonggi Women and Family Foundation, which handles research and policy development related to women and families, and the Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation, which handles the development of various welfare policies and enhancing the quality of social welfare facility services, are located in the Suwon Human Resource Development Center building.
The Gyeonggi Agriculture and Fisheries Promotion Agency, which promotes rural revitalization and agricultural and fishery product distribution business, is located at the Gyeonggi Comprehensive Labor Welfare Center in Gwonseon-gu, Suwon, and the Gyeonggi Housing and Urban Development Corporation, which manages residential site development and industrial complexes in the province, is located on Gwonjoong-ro in Gwonseon-gu, Suwon.
The Gyeonggi Economic Science Promotion Agency, which supports small and medium-sized enterprise competitiveness enhancement and fourth industrial technology promotion, and the Gyeonggi Credit Guarantee Foundation, which handles credit guarantee and debt management for small business owners, are located within the Gwang-gyeong Technology Valley in Suwon.