Assembly forges ahead with regional merger bills

The National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee approved special bills aimed at launching three megacities in non-capital regions Thursday night.

With the committee approval, the bills are in the final stretch of the passage, as the liberal bloc aims to pass the bills at the National Assembly by the end of this month.

The legislation aimst o merge South Chungcheong, South Jeolla and North Gyeongsang provinces with nearby metropolitan cities: Daejeon, Gwangju and Daegu, respectively.

These bills will elevate the merged megacities' status to "special status" equivalent to Seoul, in addition to budget support to stimulate these megacities' growth.

The population in Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province combined stands at over 3.5 million people, Gwangju and South Jeolla Province's combined population amounts to some 3.2 million, while Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province have over 4.8 million people combined.

In December, President Lee Jae Myung floated the idea of regional integration to achieve balanced national growth, to address the Greater Seoul region's dominance over the economy.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok set out a plan in January to offer a state budget incentive of up to 20 trillion won ($13.8 billion) over four years as a financial incentive for integration.

The mergers face a race against time, with the local elections due in June. Kim said during an interpellation session Wednesday that electing the new leaders of the three megacities in June would be close to impossible unless the Assembly passed the necessary bills before the end of February.