Meeting Local Leaders

[Anchor Lead]

President Moon Jae-in met with the elected leaders of 17 cities and provinces and vowed to amend the Constitution with a focus on decentralization. Before the constitutional amendment, he proposed holding meetings of city mayors and provincial governors on a regular basis.

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President Moon Jae-in, who promised during his presidential campaign to hold meetings with city mayors and provincial governors, invited the heads of 17 cities and provinces to Cheong Wa Dae for a meeting. He promised to introduce a stipulation promoting decentralization and to lay a foundation for holding meetings with the heads of local governments during the constitutional amendment process next year. It was the second time that the president expressed his willingness to amend the constitution after mentioning it for the first time in his speech commemorating the May 18 pro-democracy movement. It represents his determination to decentralize the excessive power of the central government.

[Soundbite] Pres. Moon Jae-in : "I will create a strong decentralized republic on par with a federation, where the Seoul metropolitan area can co-exist with regions."

President Moon proposed holding meetings with the heads of local governments on a regular basis before the constitutional amendment to discuss decentralization and balanced regional development. Gangwon-do Province Governor Choi Moon-soon said that decentralization requires doing away with the structure that concentrates money, power and information in one place.

[Soundbite] Choi Moon-soon(Governor, Gangwon-do Prov.) : "I hope you will make sure that money, power and knowledge and information are spread evenly all over the country to eliminate polarization."

President Moon urged the local governments to spend 3.5 trillion won in local share taxes that would be allocated to them as part of the supplementary budget on creating jobs.