President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a meeting with heads of local autonomous governments in Hongseong-gun, South Chungcheong Province, Thursday. (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday that local governments' cooperation with the state was crucial in encouraging foreign residents to settle here to address the population crisis in South Korea.

At a meeting held in Hongseong-gun, South Chungcheong Province, Yoon, who presided over a meeting with heads of the autonomous governments, said the central and local governments should take preemptive actions to support foreign nationals to settle and work in Korean society, as the country faces a growing shortage in its working-age population.

"We must take preemptive action on the labor shortage in the wake of the fast aging of the population coupled with the low birth rate," Yoon said before some 100 participants. "The low birth rate issue and the foreign worker issue must be seriously addressed through the collaboration of central and local governments."

There, Yoon called for support measures to enable foreign residents and international students to settle here as local community members and engage in "healthy economic activities" nationwide to help them each fulfill their "Korean dream."

Immigration data shows Korea was home to 1.8 million foreign nationals -- nearly 5 percent of the nation's entire population -- as of the end of 2023. Among these, 230,000 were students.

"Local industrial sites and rural towns are already experiencing a demographic drought, and universities in remote areas are already going all out to lure exchange students from foreign countries to cushion the impact of the sharp decline in the school-age population in the region," he said.

Yoon pointed out that the local governments of Gangwon Province and North Chungcheong Province had already laid out support for foreign workers, by building dormitories or supporting the cost of accommodations. In Busan, interpreters accompany foreign workers when they visit doctors.

But there are growing calls for improvements to policy on immigration and foreign residents, Yoon said. In this regard, Yoon welcomed requests from the local governments to participate in related policy-making decisions.

Chiefs of provincial governments presented their proposals on introducing customized local policies to support foreign residents at the meeting, according to the presidential office.

Details of the specific measures discussed in Thursday's event were not disclosed as of press time.

In Yoon's previous meetings with provincial governors, proposals from different regions have included granting permission to international students to work in factories in addition to farms, and the expansion of dormitories for seasonal workers, among others.

President Yoon Suk Yeol (third from left) salutes to the national flag as he presided over a meeting with heads of local autonomous governments in Hongseong-gun, South Chungcheong Province, Thursday. (Yonhap)

Thursday's meeting came as Seoul announced plans to expand the scope of workplaces where E-9 visa holders are eligible to work.

According to the Foreign Workforce Policy Committee under Prime Minister Han Duck-soo's Office, on July 19, E-9 visa holders may now apply to work as kitchen assistants in restaurants serving Chinese, Japanese and Western food. Employers dedicated to the lumber and mining industry may also apply to hire workers with E-9 visas.

The government had earlier pledged to increase the annual number of E-9 visas it issued to 165,000 this year, from 120,000 in 2023.

Citizens of the following countries are eligible to apply for E-9 visas in the agriculture, fisheries, manufacturing, construction, restaurants, hotels and resorts, forestry and mining sectors: Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, as for ways to tackle South Korea's low birth rate, Yoon said in Thursday's event that the local governments should be given greater autonomy and fiscal support to map out regional-level policies to boost the birth rate while catering to the demands of each region.

Fewer Korean nationals have been giving birth as people are living longer. Korea's birth rate in 2023 stood at 0.72 per woman, while the life expectancy reached 83.6 years in 2023.