Chungnam Province, which is soaring to become South Korea's artificial intelligence (AI) capital, has brought its campaign to attract the headquarters of the National Information Resources Service (NIRS) to the surface and is going all-out.

The plan is to successfully attract the "national information system control tower" to Chungnam, leveraging its strengths including "three-power innovation" (abundant power, water, and human resources) and the location of the disaster recovery center.

On the 16th, Governor Park Soo-hyun met with Minister of the Interior and Safety Yoon Ho-jung at the Government Complex-Seoul and requested three major pending issues: △ establishment of the NIRS headquarters in Chungnam, △ establishment of a practical administrative and financial support system for the Chungcheong Metropolitan Alliance, and △ preparation of measures to preserve local allocation taxes.

Governor Park first emphasized that the new location for the NIRS needs to be linked with strengthening the stability of the national information resource management system and balanced national development, and actively requested that Chungnam be strongly considered as the new headquarters site. Governor Park particularly explained that Chungnam has optimal conditions for the new NIRS location, citing strengths such as △ possessing a solid power infrastructure at the top level nationwide, △ the ability to build real-time duplication of national core systems, △ a location safe from natural disasters, and △ excellent settlement conditions based on geographical accessibility.

Regarding the establishment of an administrative and financial support system for the Chungcheong Metropolitan Alliance, the request was made based on the judgment that the alliance must be able to function as a practical super-metropolitan administrative organization.

Since being elected as the head of the Chungcheong Metropolitan Alliance last July, Governor Park has emphasized the functional actualization of the Chungcheong Metropolitan Alliance as a prerequisite step for the epochal tasks of South Korea's "5-Pole 3-Special" and Chungcheong-region administrative integration.

The Chungcheong Metropolitan Alliance is the nation's first special local government in which four cities and provinces—Daejeon, Sejong, Chungbuk, and Chungnam—participate, but under the current authority and finances, there are limitations in performing super-metropolitan affairs.

Accordingly, the province believes that the delegation of national affairs through the enactment of the "Special Act on the Establishment and Support of the Chungcheong Metropolitan Alliance" and the inclusion of special local governments as targets for local allocation tax grants must be achieved.

The preparation of measures to preserve local allocation taxes was requested as concerns have been raised regarding the reduction of the scale of local allocation taxes during the government's process of creating a future response fund.

Emphasizing that local allocation taxes are core financial resources supporting local governments' stable provision of administrative services and promotion of local pending projects, Governor Park stressed that the institutional reorganization process must not undermine the stability of local finance, and a preservation measure is necessary in case of reduction. Governor Park urged, "The establishment of the NIRS headquarters in Chungnam is not just for the benefit of Chungnam alone, but a task directly linked to balanced national development, enhancement of local government competitiveness, and furthermore, South Korea's sustainable growth," adding, "Please show active interest and support so that regions can prepare for their own futures and create new growth engines."

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