Why Did Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon District, Give a Special Lecture on District Vision to Employees Instead of Holding a New Year's Ceremony?

Convention-breaking New Year's Ceremony Emphasizes Sharing District Values with Employees... District Mayor Presents Vision on District Management Direction and Major Projects to All Staff Over Two Days

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] The New Year's kick-off ceremony typically involves a top-down, one-sided, and ceremonial format where the head of the district office delivers a New Year's address, awards employees who worked hard last year, and recognizes outstanding departments. This is the usual scene for employees.

Nowon-gu (District Mayor Oh Seung-rok) boldly abolished the customary 'kick-off ceremony' held every New Year's Day in the district auditorium with only some employees attending.

Instead, on January 6th and 7th, over two days, the district mayor directly presented the 2020 district administration direction and major projects in three sessions to all 1,500 employees in the district auditorium, replacing the traditional ceremony.

This change was due to the problem that most employees know well about their own work but are unaware of what other departments or employees do, making it difficult to grasp Nowon-gu's strengths, weaknesses, and urgent issues.

The judgment was that it would be more helpful for the district mayor and employees to accurately recognize the current situation and conditions of the organization to better serve the community and residents.

At the 2020 district vision special lecture held over two days, Nowon-gu Mayor Oh Seung-rok appeared on stage wearing a suit with a polo shirt, a wireless microphone attached to his right cheek, standing in front of a large sign that read "Nowon, happy today and looking forward to tomorrow." He started the lecture holding only a presentation pointer.

First, he explained the major project plans for 2020 aligned with the six district administration goals: ▲ Healing city adding rest to nature ▲ Cultural and sports city with pauses ▲ Warm and healthy welfare city with sharing ▲ Young educational city toward the future ▲ Faster and more convenient transportation city ▲ Vibrant future city with jobs.

He presented the district administration direction to address weaknesses and leverage strengths. The district's strengths include a green coverage rate of 54.5%, ranked first in Seoul, making it a natural resource; the second lowest number of five major crimes in Seoul, making it a safe city; and its status as an educational special zone with the top national rankings of international high schools and autonomous private high schools, as well as a high acceptance rate to prestigious universities.

On the other hand, he pointed out weaknesses such as a lack of quality jobs and population decline due to aging apartments.

He also proposed solutions. The main core tasks include creating 80,000 jobs through the development of the site after relocating the Changdong vehicle depot, the last prime land in Seoul; improving residential environments through projects like replacing old apartment water pipes; creating healing towns by district for residents' healing life; aggressively investing budgets to create a public education special zone suitable for excellent educational conditions such as the Math Culture Center and Space School; and making a well-connected transportation city by ensuring the smooth progress of GTX-C line, KTX operation, and Dongbuk Line light rail, opening an 8-minute era to Gangnam.

After completing the 102-page presentation, Nowon-gu Mayor Oh Seung-rok said, "'Nowon, happy today and looking forward to tomorrow' is the wish for residents, employees, and Nowon's future," adding, "Employees must work enthusiastically for residents to live enthusiastically. I ask employees to become those who see, hear, and feel a lot, creating a desire for residents to live in Nowon-gu for a long time."

Mayor Oh has also directly presented at the inauguration ceremony starting the 7th term of the local government in July 2018 and at the annual New Year's meetings by neighborhood, listening to various voices from residents and gathering opinions on local issues and development plans through dialogue sessions with residents.

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This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.