Regional human resource development(RHRD) has been seen by local autonomous governments as the key to reforming the regional human resources structure and to strengthening the competencies needed to implement regional economy. However, given that this drive to RHRD is still in its infancy, their outcomes are still low and insufficient compared with their ideal states. For addressing this problem, this study attempted to identify a leadership model, roles and competencies of local government leaders needed to possess in order to effectively implement RHRD projects in their respective regions. The research methods employed in this paper included a case study and a survey. The case study consisted of an analysis of interviews with 24 managers and specialists from the human resources departments of 12 local autonomous governments, as well as the analysis of other related materials. With regards to the survey, the results of 175 completed surveys, which had originally been sent out to 248 local autonomous governments, were analyzed. A standard RHRD leadership model was developed in accordance with literature review and the results of the case study. This model consisted of internal roles and external roles in terms of policy planning, implementing and coordinating, and diffusing processes and 6 competency clusters which were consisted of 30 competencies, and 6 types of RHRD outcomes. This survey found that RHRD leaders has adequately carried out the following roles: the sustained implementation of changes and reforms, establishment of a vision and strategy for the development of human resources, and the establishment of policy plans, construction of cooperative linkage systems. On the other hand, their roles to foster the development of human resources and monitoring of the implementation of RHRD policy measures, securing of the HR experts, and the construction of the necessary infrastructure were found to be wanting. However, both leadership groups recognized the importance of carrying out these tasks in the future. As far as the competencies that are required by the leaders to implement the job tasks related to the development of human resources are concerned, the present leadership group was found to score highest in the leadership competency cluster, which includes such competencies as sincerity and communication skills. The second highest scoring cluster was the result-oriented competency one, which includes such competencies as customer service, decision-making ability, and problem solving ability. Meanwhile, while the present leadership group scored very low in terms of competencies related to human resources development specialization, they also tended to regard this cluster as being less important. There is a need to adapt this model, roles, and competencies to strengthen RHRD and leadership competencies to the prevailing conditions of individual local governments.