We were awarded in the 'K-Administration' category at the K-Brand Awards
States Governor Kim Young-hwan of Chungcheongbuk-do at an interview with The Korea Post media
By Feature Editors Kim Hyung-dae, Lee Sam-sun, Reporter Ms. Kim Soo-bin
Governor Kim Young-hwan of Chungcheongbuk-do, the thriving mid-western province of the Republic of Korea, proudly says on his three forte points:
Without a sea, we pride ourselves on our breathtaking lakes.
Without a port, we pride ourselves on the Baekdudaegan mountain range.
Without a ship, we pride ourselves on being a hub that connects the world.
Then he says: “We will try to enliven Chungcheongbuk-do like a diamond in the rough of Korea!
“We will put our utmost effort to innovate, create, serve, and protect.
“Our goals of balanced development, reliable welfare, and accessible culture will bolster Chungcheongbuk-do for the residents to remain enthusiastic.”
Governor Kim goes on to say:
“I promise to serve the people, always reminding myself of the lesson of the noted Korean scholar, Jeong Yak-yong, which reads: Be humble at all times!”
Kim is also widely known and acclaimed for the remarkable changes, reforms and improvements carried out by the Province thanks to his noble ideas and initiatives. The Korea Post media, publisher of 3 English and 2 Korean-language news publications since 1985, has recently interviewed Governor Kim for the introduction of the wondrous developments made in his province. Details of the interview are presented hereunder:
Question: We understand that there were remarkable changes and developments in the Chungcheongbuk-do Province last year. Please introduce them in detail.
Answer: Well, one of the biggest changes among them could be our discovery of a new name, ‘We are standing at the center!’ The meaning of the Chinese character Chung (忠) meaning ‘Loyalty) is the combination of Jung (center) and Sim (mind) and they very well represent the traits of the people of our province. The most important thing that our province wants to do, perhaps, is the first path that no one has trodden before.
We would like to ask for encouragements and support so that our challenges and efforts could be unwaveringly and successfully attained and a real reform could be introduced and attained in our province and in the Republic of Korea.
We are finding our name anew, 'Standing in the Center!'
I think it is a name that can only be used by our province, Chungcheongbuk-do, in Korea and that perfectly expresses the identity of our province which no one can deny.
The name perfectly expresses the unique identity of Chungcheongbuk-do, which can only be used in Korea and cannot be denied by anyone.
In particular, the name expresses our province’s vision to become the center of the world beyond the center of Korea and our provincial goal to stand out as the center of all fields in the world as well as in Korea.
I think that it is the greatest achievement to find the forgotten identity of our province and raise the self-esteem and pride of the people of the Chungcheongbuk-do Province.
At the same time, we initiated various policies that will be the cornerstone of Chungcheongbuk-do Province's next 100 years.
There have recently been many remarkable developments in the Chungcheongbuk-do Province, and they include passage of the Special Law to Support the Central Hinterland by the National Assembly, winning of the position of Number One in the nation in terms of the number of new births, and winning of investments of KRW 40 trillion in our province.
We also won a budget allocation of KRW 8.829 trillion from the Central Government and created the K-Bio Square reflecting the government's plan to build K-Bio Square. Our province also won the designation of a global innovation zone in the field of advanced regenerative biotechnology and won the confirmation of the passage of metropolitan railroad through the Cheongju City of the Chungcheongbuk-do Province.
There also were release of the agricultural promotion zone for the Osong 3rd National Industrial Complex, designation of the National Advanced Strategic Industrial Complex for Secondary Batteries, designation of the Specialized Complex for Biopharmaceuticals, and selection of the RISE Pilot Project & Global University 30
There also was the exemption from the pre-qualification for the establishment of the AI Bio Gifted and Talented High School. In addition, we have created a new wave of reforms and innovation which have never been experienced before.
We are successfully promoting innovative projects that are the first in the Chungcheongbuk-do Province, the first in Korea, and the first in the world, such as the medical reimbursement system, urban farmers, urban workers, Monnani Kimchi, Monnan Chili (minced seasoning, pickles, and chili peppers), opening of accommodation at Cheongnam-do, provincial capital sky garden and lawn square, creation of a cultural space at the Industrial Promotion Center, and opening of the Dangsan Tunnel.
Our province’s unconventional and fresh challenges and policies have been successful and have been highly recognized and were accorded many citations during the year-end and New Year holidays.
We were awarded in the 'K-Administration' category at the K-Brand Awards, Presidential Commendation at the Local Government Management Competition, etc. We believe that the status of the Chungcheongbuk-do Province is higher than ever before.
Q: We understand that your province was the only province in the Republic of Korea with an increase in the number of births last year. What is the secret behind this?
A: Chungcheongbuk-do was the only province in the Republic of Korea to increase the number of births last year.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety Statistics published a report in December 2023 showing a year-on-year increase in the number of births in the Chungcheongbuk-do Province (1.5%), which was the highest in the Republic of Korea against the backdrop where the national population statistics had been continuously decreasing.
The government's Committee on Low Birthrate and Elderly Society has taken great interest in the increase in the number of births in the Chungcheongbuk-do province, and has visited the province to closely examine the policy status.
There are many reasons for the increase in the number of births in our province along, which include improvement of the effectiveness of unconventional childbirth and care incentive policies such as maternity and childcare allowances.
There also were geographical advantages such as being the center of the country with many high-tech industries such as semiconductors, bio, and rechargeable batteries which are believed to have contributed to the rebound.
In addition, the establishment of a dedicated population department, the formation of a population crisis response task force, and the enactment of the nation's first ordinance to honor pregnant women may have contributed to the increase in the number of births.
Major policies include improvement of the first-aid stations for pregnant women, support for eco-friendly agricultural products, and support for egg-freezing procedures, etc.
In addition, structural changes in the population, such as the nation's No. 1 marriage growth rate (5.2%) and a temporary increase in the number of women giving birth in the main population (25-31 years old).
It is considered that the creation of high-quality jobs and the influx of young people have had a significant impact on the increase in the number of births, such as the highest performance in the shortest period of investment attraction (40 trillion won) and the number one status in the country in real economic growth (6.86%, excluding Sejong City).
Q: What are your policies currently envisioning or planning to implement in the future to further widen the gaps in the increase in births?
A: In order to continue to drive the current increase in the number of births based on the hard-won steps taken to overcome the population crisis through the effects of maternity and childcare allowances, we trust that more bold policies are needed.
In order to treat pregnant women, the 'Pregnant Women's Honor Ordinance' will be implemented for the first time in the Republic of Korea, and policies to overcome infertility will be greatly expanded, including the abolition of income restrictions on fertility treatment costs, expansion of support for egg freezing procedures, and support for frozen egg preservation reproduction.
In addition, we plan to support postpartum care expenses for pregnant women (500,000 won), support transportation expenses for pregnant women in county areas (500,000 won), reduce admission fees for pregnant women at major tourist and cultural facilities, and expand the priority window for handling complaints.
In addition, we will also implement unconventional policies such as the supply of half-price apartments and interest-free loan support for childcare expenses, which are under consideration for specific implementation, to provide practical support to all classes and generations who have difficulty raising children.
With the idea that 'children born in Chungcheongbuk-do are raised by Chungcheongbuk-do,' we will continue to discover and promote our province's unique childbirth, childrearing, and care policies to take the lead in solving the national challenge of increasing births.
In addition, we will do our best to improve the living conditions for having and raising children through province-wide reforms, such as creating high-quality jobs, expanding diverse educational opportunities, and expanding high-quality cultural and artistic infrastructure.
Q: Last year, the 'Special Act on Supporting the Central Inland Linkage Development Area', which was the hottest topic in Chungcheongbuk-do Province last year, passed the National Assembly in less than a year. Please explain its meaning and future plans.
A: This is the first time since the creation of Chungcheongbuk-do in 1896 that a special law has been passed for the region.
Compared with other regions' special laws, which took several years to up to 10 years to enact, it is a remarkable achievement that it was enacted in just one year in the case of our province.
The Central Inland Special Law is a golden opportunity to compensate the people of the Central Inland, including the people of Chungcheongbuk-do, whose property rights are being violated by excessive waterfront regulations while providing water to 30 million people, including the capital region.
It is significant because it is the first step in the journey to restore the lost pride and rights of the people of the central hinterland, as well as to heal Korea's monopolarized metropolis and overcome the crisis of regionalization.
The Central Hinterland Special Law consists of 27 articles and 4 supplementary articles, stipulating that support and regulatory reform for the Central Hinterland region is the responsibility of the state.
To this end, each minister is authorized to establish development, utilization, and management measures, and to provide additional special support such as local subsidies.
It is also expected to speed up the development of the Central Hinterland Interconnected Power Project as various approvals and permits will be processed.
Although the groundwork has been laid for the development of the central hinterland, it is still insufficient to compensate for the losses suffered by the central hinterlanders who have been discriminated against and marginalized in the process of national development centered on the coastal areas.
As many special laws have been successful with the 'first enactment, later revision' strategy, we will continue to work on revising the special laws to make them more palatable to the people.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the people of Chungcheongbuk-do province and other inhabitants of the Central Interior for their efforts in enacting the Special Law. I will do my best to ensure that the Special Law contributes to the sustainable development of not only Chungcheongbuk-do, but also the entire Central Inland Region (8 road regions, 28 basic areas).
Q: Recently, you announced that you will focus all of the province’s capabilities to build a private runway at Cheongju International Airport.
A: For the Chungcheongbuk-do province, which has no sea, securing a skyway is crucial to its survival. However, Cheongju International Airport has inherent limitations as a civil-military airport, making it difficult to revitalize. There is lack of slots limits in civilian flights (only 0.5 of 2 runways are used for civilian purpose). The slots are: Cheongju Airport 7~8, Gimpo 41, Gimhae 18~26, and Jeju 35.
There also is the problem of limited takeoff and landing of large aircraft due to insufficient runway length (currently 2,744 meters)
In particular, the government's plan to deploy additional F-35A stealth aircraft will inevitably lead to a contraction in civil aviation operations.
To solve this problem, a new private runway is absolutely necessary.
Moreover, Cheongju International Airport has recently recorded the largest number of passengers for two consecutive years, and is expected to exceed 5 million in 2-3 years.
The current runway is insufficient to handle the growing demand for air travel.
The maximum number of passengers for two consecutive years are 3.17 million in 2022 and 3.7 million in 2023.
Expected increase in passengers due to expansion of slots would be from 6~7 times to 7~8 times. And 8,760 flights are anticipated per year with a total of 1.58 million passengers expected to increase.
In response, the Cheongju International Airport is focusing its capabilities on building a new private runway.
First, the provincial government will promote its own capacity from March to derive a concrete plan to be reflected in the government's 7th Comprehensive Airport Development Plan.
In addition, we will make our best efforts by conducting a large-scale signature campaign in solidarity with neighboring local governments such as southern Gyeonggi and Chungcheong regions, including the joint public-private committee launched in December last year, and reflecting it in the pledges of the next general elections.
Q: The Chungcheongbuk-do Province is known to be the first in Korea and also the first in the world to launch a deferred payment system for medical expenses. How do you evaluate the program after one year of implementation and do you have any plans to expand it further?
A: First of all, I think we have achieved half of the success. We launched the first medical deferred payment system in Korea on January 9 last year.
I believe that no one should have to miss out on surgery because of lack of money, or lose their precious lives because they missed the golden time. We started this project with the idea of first receiving medical treatment and then paying off the medical bills later.
The project provides interest-free financing for medical expenses up to KRW3 million to the medically vulnerable, with the loan repaid in installments over 36 months.
As an unprecedented project, it faced many difficulties until its implementation.
So far (as of Jan. 26, 2024), a total of 509 residents have expressed interest in participating in the project, and out of 443 people whose loans have been executed, only 3 have been delinquent (99.3% repayment rate), showing that the project has been successfully established.
In order to improve the completeness of the project, efforts have been made to improve the convenience of beneficiaries by expanding eligibility (Feb. 1, 2023), improving credit verification procedures (April 24, 2023), and expanding target diseases (Nov. 13, 2023).
The number of participating medical institutions has continued to expand along with the growing interest in the project, and has more than doubled from 80 at the beginning of the project to 204 (13 general hospitals, 13 general hospitals, and 178 private clinics) as of January 26, 2024.
However, this is not enough to say that it is a representative medical welfare system in the Chungcheongbuk-do Province.
In addition to marginalized and difficult neighbors, more citizens should be able to experience a healthy and happy life by receiving a wide range of benefits.
We will continue our efforts to expand the coverage and scope of the program in stages and gradually after careful analysis and review.
Q: Do you think the 'Chungchongbuk-do Province-style urban farmer,' a new concept of working style devised by the province, will work?
A: I have heard that the project is revitalizing both the urban and rural areas.
"Urban farmers" is a system that allows urban laborers to work in rural areas.
Last year, more than 60,000 people were involved, providing a lot of help to urban and rural areas.
The performance in 2023 includes recruitment 3,919 people, providing of support for 65,532 persons and 20,017 farms.
Currently, rural areas are facing severe labor shortage due to the population decline and aging in Korea. However, there are still people looking for jobs in the cities.
In response to this situation, our province is promoting a policy to foster idle urban laborers as 'urban farmers' and employ them for agricultural sites experiencing labor shortages.
This is a ground-breaking policy that simultaneously solves the problem of labor shortage in rural areas and job shortage in cities as the first urban-rural win-win job project in the Republic of Korea.
(The governor was awarded the Presidential Prize (Grand Prize) at the Local Government Management Competition for innovative projects unique to Chungcheongbuk-do Province.)
Urban farmers are freed from hard physical labor with a 4-hour workday, and farmers can provide skilled labor at a lower labor cost (36,000 won for farmers and 24,000 won for the city) compared to foreign workers.
It is said to be especially popular among housewives who have difficulty working full-time due to childcare and housework.
In addition, demanding farmers responded that they were able to find labor smoothly and complete their farming work in a timely manner thanks to urban farmers.
Currently, the program is actively engaged in the production and processing of agricultural products such as vegetables, fruit trees, and mushrooms, and the scope of activities is gradually expanding.
In the first year of its introduction (2022), urban farmers played a big role in collecting cabbages that were left in the field because they could not find a market and reborn as 'Chungbuk Ugly Kimchi.'
Recently, 1,845 urban farmers were immediately deployed to hail-damaged orchard farms in the northern part of the city to collect 'dimpled apples' and contribute to minimizing damage to farmers.
I would like to do more to promote urban farmers as a way to revitalize the rural and urban areas and revitalize local economies.
Q: 'Chungcheongbuk-do’s ugly farm products' are now a representative brand of Chungcheongbuk-do agricultural products. Please introduce the details.
A: It started with kimchi and expanded to various other items such as apples, peppers, and potatoes, etc. It is a great boost to our rural areas.
'Ill-shaped Kimchi program,’ which was started in 2022 to help cabbage farmers whose prices plummeted due to over-production, has been nurtured as a Chungbuk Kimchi brand with its purpose and values rose even after the price crash, and is produced now all the year around.
As of Jan. 19, 2024, the business sold 317 tons of kimchi worth KRW11.2 billion.
In the fall of last year, a new pilot project utilizing ugly cabbage was launched by purchasing 360 tons of cabbage that was discarded due to poor harvest and unmarketable, producing it as flavored kimchi, canned kimchi, and selling it as Kohlrabi, which was very popular and well received by the market.
In addition, we harvested and processed end peppers that were discarded and launched the 'Accidentally Ugly Pepper' series, which contributed to increasing the farmers' income.
After five or six harvests from September to October, the relatively low-quality end-of-season pepper products are sold to urban farmers and laborers,
It contributed to the creation of new income for farmers by producing minced spices, pickles, and pickled peppers, the so-called pepper trio.
Focusing on expanding distribution channels to increase accessibility between producers and consumers we revitalized sales of these ugly agricultural products.
We also conducted promotional events for ugly agricultural products (12 times in 2023, 99 tons sold amounting to KRW 321 million).
We promoted the measures also to apples, cucumbers, watermelons, zucchini, and cabbages in cooperation with the Agricultural Cooperatives (Nonghyup) Distribution channel, including Hanaro Mart.
We also operated the Nadri Market (agricultural specialty product market) in the Garden Square of the Metropolitan Government Complex (19 times in 2023, and sold KRW 90 million worth of products)
In addition to promoting and selling high-quality agricultural products in the province, we will continue to discover new products by upcycling ugly agricultural products to improve farmers' incomes.
Q: You said that you will start a project to attract 10,000 international students to your province this year. Please elaborate on the program.
A: The K-International Student Program is a policy that is in line with the ideological roots of our nation and the founding ideology of the Republic of Korea, 'Hongik Inkan' (Spreading Benevolence to Everyone).
It is a policy that provides jobs and educational opportunities at the same time so that international students who are not financially able to afford it can come to Korea and study and work at the same time.
In the current international student system, international students take on a lot of debt even before they come to Korea, and this leads to problems such as untimely departures from school and illegal immigration.
The K-student policy aims to overcome these problems through a public process to create a win-win situation for international students from endangered regions and underdeveloped countries.
First, various measures are being explored to solve the financial proof for visa issuance, which is the first gateway for international students to enter the country. They include a total of 16 million won for degree programs and 8 million won for language training programs (local level).
We select international students for children and relatives of employees of local companies and supporting financial verification.
We also encourage university-business company matching scholarships to replace financial support with corporate invitation certificates, etc.
After enrollment, international students can cover tuition, dormitory fees, and living expenses by combining study and work.
Work activities are arranged in such a way that they do not strain academic performance (about 25 hours per week, about 1 million won per month)
After graduation, we plan to support students to settle down stably through employment connections with companies in the province, or to return to their home countries to get a job or start a business.
Chungbuk National University of Health Sciences was selected as a university for training foreign technical personnel in root technology (January 2024), and after graduation, students can obtain a work visa (E7) to settle in the region.
If successful, the project will create the effect of ‘Catching Five Birds with One Stone’ which is an improved expression of the conventional Ilseok Ijo (Catching two birds with one stone).
It provides international students with a broader range of academic and career choices and offers international students to 17 universities experiencing shortage of students. It will also help the farmers in the rural areas suffering from labor shortages, and provide the urban workers with an opportunity to enter small and medium-sized enterprises that suffer labor shortages.
The program also contributes to revitalizing the local economy by increasing the number of people living in the region.
If international students who come to our province are welcomed as special guests by the local people and return home with good memories and images of our province, they will become strong supporters of Korea as well as our province in the future.
Q: Do you have any other details which our questionnaire has not fully covered?
A: In order for Chungcheongbuk-do Province to truly become the ‘Center of Korea,’ we must try to make it the "Center of the Reforms.”
Fortunately, the Chungcheongbuk-do Province has the best conditions to rapidly spread the winds of reform and innovation throughout the Republic of Korea.
For example, the success story of our province, which saw the only increase in the number of births in the country last year, has sparked a wave of innovative birth control measures announced by local governments and governments across the country.
The policies that our province pioneered and succeeded in, such as the deferred payment system for medical expenses, urban farmers, and ugly agricultural products, are also serving as role models for other local governments.
In the future, the Chungcheongbuk-do Province will continue to spin the wheels of reform even more vigorously and spread the wind of reform throughout the Republic of Korea.
We will also strive to achieve a new era of transportation and logistics in Korea by establishing a private runway at Cheongju International Airport, and change the paradigm of Korea's population policy by successfully attracting 10,000 K-students.
We will try to revitalize the dying rural areas by introducing 'AI scientific farming' in our province and create a sustainable Korea where all generations can help each other and co-exist by linking senior jobs and social donations through the (tentative) 'K-Silver Helper' project.
Everything Chungcheongbuk-do wants to do is the first path that no one has trodden before.
I would like to ask for your encouragement and support so that Chungcheongbuk-do's challenges and efforts will be unwavering and successful until the end, so that we can reform Korea.