ULSAN — Ulsan is accelerating efforts to expand cross-regional cooperation with Busan and Gyeongsangnam Province. Rather than immediately merging administrative boundaries, the city plans to first restore a special local government body known as a "mega city," jointly carry out large state-funded projects, and gradually widen cooperation starting with areas residents can feel directly, such as transportation and health care.
Ulsan said on the 17th that it is pursuing a roadmap for cross-regional cooperation across Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongsangnam Province in line with the central government's "five poles, three special zones" strategy for balanced national growth. With the government concentrating administrative and fiscal support on regions pursuing administrative integration or mega city arrangements, the city judged that cooperation among the three regions is necessary to counter the dominance of the greater Seoul area.
The recent restructuring of large state projects around cross-regional blocs is another driver behind reviving the mega city. The government's "three mega projects" and its investment plan for the Yeongnam region link projects by hub, including AI data centers, future mobility and all-solid-state batteries in Ulsan; semiconductors in Busan; and shipbuilding, aerospace, defense and small modular reactors (SMRs) in Gyeongsangnam Province. Ulsan plans to pursue these projects jointly through a special local government body, boosting synergy in securing state funding and attracting investment.
Cooperation on everyday services will also expand. To tie the three regions' 7.6 million residents into a single living zone, the city will push to expand the metropolitan transportation network and introduce a public transit transfer system, while broadening cooperation into health care, education and culture. Industrial artificial intelligence transformation, a Northeast Asian energy hub and a second round of relocating public agencies are also being pursued as joint tasks. The existing Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam cross-regional economic alliance will serve as the working framework.
The three regions will also jointly draw up medium- and long-term development plans for the four regional growth engines selected by the government: advanced shipbuilding and shipping, aerospace and defense, next-generation mobility manufacturing, and next-generation nuclear power and energy. They plan to establish detailed action plans covering the attraction of anchor company investment and institutional support measures to promote investment.
"Practical cooperation that improves the convenience of residents' lives and builds industrial competitiveness comes before the political slogan of administrative integration," an Ulsan city official said. "Through the revival of the mega city, we will successfully lead national projects and open an era of shared prosperity that the 7.6 million residents of Busan, Ulsan and Gyeongsangnam Province can feel."
