Seoul, Nov 12 South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung pledged on Wednesday to step up reforms to overhaul the Seoul-centric system and promote regional development by enhancing local financial autonomy and relocating public institutions.
Lee made the remark during his first meeting with regional mayors and governors since taking office in June, stressing the importance of cooperation between the central and local governments as "equal partners."
"It is more important than anything else that we reform the Seoul-centric system and achieve balanced regional development," he said, Yonhap News Agency reported.
"We will accelerate efforts to decentralise local finances and relocate public institutions to regional areas," he said.
Lee noted that more subsidies and other support will be provided to regions that are farther away from Seoul under next year's budget bill to enhance local autonomy.
"The size of local autonomous budgets has nearly tripled, from around 3.8 trillion won to about 10.6 trillion won," he said.
Recalling that South Korea first introduced the elections-based local government system 30 years ago, Lee pointed out that there is still much to be done to fill in the gaps in decentralisation efforts.
"In fact, there have been critical assessments that local autonomy has been merely symbolic," he said. "The central government will work with local governments to improve people's livelihoods and make a better future for the Republic of Korea."
On Tuesday, Lee Jae Myung urged officials to take stern measures against the spread of hate speech and disinformation, calling such acts crimes that must be stamped out.
Lee made the remark during a Cabinet meeting, stressing that such extreme expressions spreading across social media and through other channels fuel social anxiety amid a growing polarisation in society.
"There are still anachronistic acts of discrimination and hatred based on race, origin or nationality in some parts of our society," Lee said.
"On social media, hate speech targeting specific groups is spreading indiscriminately, while false and manipulated information remains rampant," he said.
Lee's remarks came as South Korea has seen growing anti-China demonstrations by some conservative groups. Last week, the chair of the Korean Red Cross resigned following revelations about his past racist comments about foreign ambassadors.
Lee strongly denounced those acts as crimes that threaten democracy and everyday life, and urged police to do their utmost to root out such behaviours.
"It can no longer be tolerated," he said. "These acts go beyond the bounds of freedom of expression. We must establish mechanisms to punish hate speech without delay."
He went on to instruct authorities to make every effort to fundamentally block the dissemination of fabricated information and called on the political circles to join efforts to eradicate hate crimes and the spread of disinformation.
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