The Korea Local Administration Review

The current problems facing local communities, such as population decline and lack of jobs, are characterized by the fact that it is difficult for a local government to respond alone within its jurisdiction. As one of the measures to solve this problem, the establishment of a special local government has been discussed, but systematic analysis of specific regional cooperation projects is lacking. In this paper, we subdivide regional cooperation projects of Chungcheong area into 4 major categories and 14 sub-components and analyze through Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP) method based on public officials’ survey data.
Regarding the importance of each sector of the regional cooperation projects, the priorities are not different in terms of efficiency, wide area, and win-win cooperation possibility in the order of transportation infrastructure, industrial economy (manpower), cultural tourism, and environment/disaster. Looking at the major functions, the relative importance of establishing a public transportation system between metropolitan areas, establishing a road network in the Chungcheong region, building a railroad network in the Chungcheong region, and fostering strategic industries is high. Next, the promotion of culture and sports in the Chungcheong region, internationalization of cultural tourism, establishment of a local industry innovation system in connection with industry, academia, and research institutes, strengthening of the homogeneity of culture and tourism in the Chungcheong region, creation of a global industrial environment, establishment of an integrated water environment management system, establishment of an integrated disaster health and medical care system, the establishment of a financial support system, the establishment of an integrated atmospheric environment management system, and the establishment of an integrated food management system are followed. Based on the analysis results, we discuss policy implications and the study’s limitations.