Province unveils 9th-term reorganization plan centered on AI, industrial innovation and youth growth
South Chungcheong Province has unveiled a new organizational blueprint aimed at completing the roadmap for its 9th-term "connected province" vision, with priorities spanning an AI-based society, industrial innovation, the spread of the Chungcheong spirit of loyalty and filial piety, and building a foundation for youth growth.
The province announced Thursday it would publish a proposed partial amendment to its ordinance on administrative bodies and staffing — its reorganization plan — for legislative notice starting Friday.
The restructuring focuses on building an action-oriented organizational framework to proactively respond to a rapidly changing environment and future administrative demands, while effectively advancing the vision and core campaign pledges of the 9th-term administration.
Dedicated units will be created or reorganized around key directions: realizing an AI-based society, supporting youth growth, activating the social solidarity economy, advancing administrative integration and balanced development, revitalizing rural communities, establishing a labor policy foundation, and transitioning to a climate-energy model. Overlapping and fragmented functions will also be consolidated.
The province has set the realization of South Chungcheong as an "AI capital" as the central goal of the reorganization. To that end, it will establish two pillars — an AI-based society that integrates AI into residents' daily lives and public administration, and AI industrial innovation that embeds AI across all industries — and will create or reorganize an AI Basic Society Welfare Office and an AI Industrial Innovation Bureau accordingly.
The AI Basic Society Welfare Office will drive AI-powered health and welfare initiatives covering child care, integrated care for the elderly and people with disabilities, and public health. The AI Industrial Innovation Bureau will spearhead new industry development, research and development, and AI infrastructure and system reform.
Under the AI Basic Society Welfare Office, a Chungcheong Spirit Planning Office will be established to handle policy for the elderly, veterans and people with disabilities, and to promote the "Chungcheong spirit of loyalty, filial piety and propriety" — the first initiative approved by Gov. Park Soo-hyun.
A Youth Growth Bureau will also be created to integrate youth policy, gender equality and family affairs, and talent development functions, establishing a comprehensive policy framework to support young people's growth, education, employment and regional settlement.
Alongside the AI Industrial Innovation Bureau, a new Economic Trade Bureau — split off and reorganized from the existing Industrial Economy Office — will add an advanced industries division and a labor policy division, while restructuring the small business economy policy and small and medium-sized enterprise support divisions to pursue a balanced approach to fostering future industries, reviving the livelihoods economy and protecting labor rights.
A newly established Social Solidarity Economy Bureau will be dedicated to nurturing social solidarity economy organizations, providing social finance support and building an innovation ecosystem, strengthening the foundation for a virtuous regional economic cycle and a sustainable social solidarity economy.
The Administrative Integration and Balanced Growth Bureau — an expansion of the existing Balanced Development Bureau — will serve as a control tower overseeing supra-regional cooperation and balanced growth, linking administrative integration, the Chungcheong Metropolitan Union and the five-hub, three-special-zone development strategy.
The Agriculture and Livestock Bureau will be reorganized around revitalizing rural communities, shifting the policy focus from agricultural production to rural settlement and regional vitality.
The Climate, Environment and Forestry Bureau will consolidate climate and energy functions and strengthen resource circulation policy, pursuing an integrated approach to climate crisis response, energy transition and the circular economy.
Additional measures include building dedicated units for fiscal innovation and public AI transformation, and systematizing convention industry and religious culture functions to bolster the region's cultural and tourism competitiveness.
Full details of the reorganization plan are available through the legislative notice section of the provincial website. The province will gather public input through Tuesday, finalize the reorganization plan and submit it to the provincial assembly, and — if the ordinance is deliberated and passed at the assembly's 380th regular session — implement it from July 31.
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
