Eunpyeong-gu Public Officials Leading Collaborative Governance with 'Public Officials Collaborative Budget System' Initiative

Published 22 Jan.2020 13:23(KST)

Scheduled for implementation from 2021 after project confirmation

Eunpyeong-gu Public Officials Leading Collaborative Governance with 'Public Officials Collaborative Budget System' Initiative

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Eunpyeong-gu (Mayor Kim Mi-kyung) and the Eunpyeong-gu Cooperation Council (Co-Chairman Choi Seung-guk) are promoting a pilot project for the Civil Servant Cooperation Budget System to achieve sustainable cooperation based on equal participation between the public and government, as well as the voluntary and active involvement of participants. This aims to motivate administrative departments to plan and implement cooperative projects first.

This initiative allows civil servants working in administrative fields, like ordinary residents, to explore and propose solutions to problems within their organizations and local communities as members of a democratic society. By sharing awareness of issues and building consensus with private sector stakeholders to solve problems together, the goal is to innovate Eunpyeong-gu’s cooperative administration and enhance the level of democracy.

On a smaller scale, it also aims to resolve the sense of alienation within administration and negative perceptions of cooperation that arise when the administration passively responds to residents’ demands by having the private sector propose tasks and the administration review them.

Since this is the first year of the pilot project, a total of 100 million KRW has been allocated. The budget is part of the citizen participation budget at the district level, which annually supports 1 billion KRW based on the local community innovation plans of autonomous districts provided by Seoul City. Once the tasks are finalized in March, they will be reflected in the 2021 local community innovation plan and implemented starting in 2021.

An official from the Eunpyeong-gu Cooperation Council stated, “Civil servants are undoubtedly important actors in cooperative administration. Moreover, Eunpyeong-gu is an autonomous district with a higher ratio of residents among civil servants compared to other districts. We hope many valuable ideas from civil servants will be discovered.”