The system is being improved to allow local government recommended personnel to participate in government committees, ensuring that regional opinions are more systematically reflected from the national policy formulation stage. The Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the Ministry of Government Legislation, and the Governors Association of Korea announced on the 16th that they had approved 20 presidential decree amendments to expand the participation of local officials in government committees at the Cabinet meeting.
This amendment aims to establish an institutional foundation to reflect regional characteristics and on-site demands in national policy tasks that need to be discussed jointly by the central and local governments. The Ministry of Government Legislation has been promoting this revision based on the discussions of the ‘National Policy and Legislative Participation Improvement Task Force (TF)’ formed with the Governors Association of Korea and academia since August last year.
The TF reviewed the relevance of local affairs among government committee agendas for a year and selected the legal grounds for 102 government committees where the participation of local officials is highly necessary. Subsequently, opinions from the Governors Association of Korea, the four major local councils, and 17 cities and provinces were collected, and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety reviewed the necessity of amending the laws with each relevant ministry.
As a result, it was decided to revise 55 laws under the jurisdiction of 11 ministries, including the Ministry of Climate and Environment. Legislative procedures were conducted for 26 laws and 20 presidential decrees. At this Cabinet meeting, 20 presidential decree amendments were approved, and 22 laws among the revised laws are currently submitted to the National Assembly for discussion.