Gwangju Citizens' Top Choice for Key Project: 'Gwangju-type Job'

Gwangju City Announces Results of Gwangju Social Survey... 7 Areas Including Environment and Welfare

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Citizens of Gwangju selected ‘Establishment and Development of Gwangju-type Jobs’ as the top priority core project that Gwangju Metropolitan City should pursue first.

Gwangju City announced on the 8th the results of the ‘2019 Gwangju Social Survey,’ conducted from August 24 to September 12 last year, targeting 9,156 citizens aged 15 and older from a sample of 4,905 households.

The Gwangju Social Survey was conducted across seven sectors?environment, welfare, culture and leisure, safety, social participation, labor, and Gwangju city characteristics?to investigate citizens’ quality of life and subjective awareness, identify social changes, and serve as basic data for policy formulation.

In 2020, seven sectors including family, income and consumption, education, and health are planned to be surveyed.

Among the core projects that Gwangju City should prioritize, the most frequently selected was ‘Establishment and Development of Gwangju-type Jobs’ with 31.4% of responses, followed by ‘Fostering Future Strategic Industries such as Artificial Intelligence and Information and Communication’ (27.6%), ‘Fostering Specialized Industries such as New Energy Industries’ (14.1%), and ‘Tourist Attraction Development of Traditional Markets and Alleyway Commercial Districts’ (9.9%).

Regarding the areas that should be focused on, more than half (61%) responded ‘Creation of Good Jobs,’ followed by ‘Establishment of an Energy Valley Utilizing KEPCO’ (13.4%).

As for industries that Gwangju City should develop as food-related industries, ‘Eco-friendly Automobile Industry’ (49%) ranked highest, followed by ‘Energy and Hydrogen Industry’ (14.1%), ‘Cultural Content and Tourism Industry’ (10.9%), and ‘Medical and Healthcare Industry’ (10.3%).

For the achievements in 2019, ‘Establishment of the Gwangju-type Job Automobile Factory’ (50.4%) was cited as the most prominent achievement, followed by ‘Successful Hosting of the Gwangju World Swimming Championships’ (25.5%) and ‘Confirmation of Construction of Urban Railway Line 2’ (13.5%).

In the environmental sector, citizens’ perception of their residential environment (air, water quality, soil, noise, green environment) was ‘average’ (45.6%) and ‘good (satisfactory)’ (30.7%), showing a slight decrease compared to two years ago when responses were ‘average’ (44.9%) and ‘good (satisfactory)’ (35.9%).

In the welfare sector, public facilities that should be increased in the future were ‘Public Parking Facilities’ (22.8%), ‘Parks and Green Walking Trails’ (18.8%), ‘Health and Medical Facilities’ (14.6%), and ‘Social Welfare Facilities’ (11.6%).

Welfare services that should be expanded were answered as ‘Employment (Job) Support Services’ (28.5%), ‘Health and Medical Care Services’ (20.8%), ‘Support for Childcare in Dual-income Families’ (13.1%), and ‘Support Services for Enjoying Leisure and Culture’ (12.1%).

For citizens aged 60 and older, the methods of securing living expenses were ‘Self and Spouse’ (67.5%), ‘Support from Children and Relatives’ (16.3%), and ‘Government and Social Organization Assistance’ (15.4%), showing a slight decrease in dependence on children and relatives compared to two years ago when it was ‘Self and Spouse’ (66.4%), ‘Support from Children or Relatives’ (18%), and ‘Government and Social Organization Assistance’ (14.8%).

In the culture and leisure sector, 29.1% reported having overseas travel experience in the past year, with travel purposes being ‘Tourism’ (90.7%), ‘Household Affairs’ (12.2%), and ‘Business’ (7.2%), indicating that most overseas travel was for tourism purposes.

In the safety sector, regarding residential fire safety facilities, ‘Installation of Fire Extinguishers and Fire Alarms’ (70.6%), ‘Installation of Fire Extinguishers Only’ (14.6%), ‘Installation of Detectors Only’ (5.2%), and ‘Not Installed’ (9.5%) were reported, showing a significant increase in the installation of fire extinguishers and fire alarms compared to two years ago when it was ‘Installation of Fire Extinguishers and Fire Alarms’ (57.7%), ‘Installation of Detectors Only’ (14.8%), ‘Installation of Fire Extinguishers Only’ (5.6%), and ‘Not Installed’ (21.8%).

Chae Kyung-gi, the city’s legal affairs officer, said, “We will deliver the survey results from each sector to the relevant departments so that they can prioritize and refer to them when establishing city policies,” and added, “We hope citizens will actively respond to this year’s social survey as well.”

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