South Gyeongsang Province earns top regional development rating for 4th consecutive year

South Gyeongsang Province announced Sunday it received the top "excellent" rating in the 2026 upper-tier evaluation of provincial autonomous accounts for regional balanced development projects, overseen by the Presidential Commission on Local Era. The result marks the province's fourth consecutive year earning the distinction.

The evaluation was conducted under the Special Act on Decentralization and Balanced Regional Development. The province carried out a self-assessment of its 2025 Special Account for Balanced Regional Development autonomous account projects, after which the Presidential Commission on Local Era reviewed three areas — process, results and feedback — to determine the final rating.

Following its own guidelines, South Gyeongsang Province selected 12 projects from a total of 36 spanning agriculture and fisheries, transportation, health, welfare and the environment as subjects of evaluation. It then formed a self-assessment committee of private-sector experts with deep knowledge of each field to evaluate planning, execution and outcomes.

The province submitted a comprehensive report of its self-assessment findings to the Presidential Commission on Local Era in February. The commission conducted the upper-tier evaluation based on reports from all 17 cities and provinces nationwide before confirming final ratings. South Gyeongsang Province received the highest score in all five areas: composition of the self-assessment committee, operation of the self-assessment committee, appropriateness of project selection, adherence to evaluation grade distribution criteria, and validity of expenditure restructuring.

The specific size of next year's fiscal incentive will be granted to the province as a final lump sum, in line with the Ministry of Economy and Finance's policy of keeping the figure undisclosed. The Presidential Commission on Local Era plans to select and announce standout project cases that residents can tangibly experience, drawing from a pool of candidates submitted by the province.

Cho Hyun-joon, head of South Gyeongsang Province's Balanced Development Headquarters, said the result reflects the province's systematic project management combined with fair evaluation operations. "We will continue to raise the quality of our balanced development policy and steadily strengthen regional competitiveness," he said.