Dobong-gu Accelerates Preparations for Designation as a Cultural City in 2020

Seoul's First Autonomous District to Be Designated as a Cultural City... Cultural Specialization Area Project Promoted... April 7th, Dobong Cultural Foundation Signs Sudden MOU for Legal Cultural City

Dobong-gu is holding the 100 Teams of Resident Planning Performance Sharing Meeting. (2019. 12. 26.)

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Dobong-gu (Mayor Lee Dong-jin) is accelerating preparations to be designated as a cultural city this year.

A cultural city is a public contest project hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, designating about 30 local governments as cultural cities by 2022. Selected local governments receive project funding up to 20 billion KRW, with 50% from the national government and 50% from local governments.

The district has formed and operated the Cultural City Dobong Promotion Committee composed of local experts to create a cultural city through cultural governance involving leaders and residents from various fields in the region and resident-led urban cultural governance.

Starting this year, the existing Cultural City Dobong Promotion Committee will operate a Cultural City Dobong Promotion Group of 50 to 100 local stakeholders to promote the statutory cultural city project.

Since last year, the district has been promoting the first cultural specialized area creation project in Seoul to be designated as a cultural city, securing a project budget of 860 million KRW this year for this purpose.

Also, under the leadership of the Cultural City Dobong Promotion Committee, various projects have been promoted to find the direction and identity of Cultural City Dobong.

Over the past year, the Cultural City Dobong Promotion Committee has operated public forums for cultural city discourse formation such as the ‘Bilbao Symposium’ and the ‘Convergence Music City Forum,’ along with various planning projects to derive Dobong-gu’s cultural specialization and the resident cultural leader training project ‘Resident Planning 100 Group,’ aiming for the growth of resident cultural capacity and the creation of social and economic value in the region under the principle of ‘All planning starts from residents.’

With the decision to apply for statutory cultural city designation this year, the district signed a cultural city project agreement on April 7 with the Dobong Cultural Foundation, which has led local cultural policies since 2017, to promote the project in earnest.

In addition, preparations are underway to unfold stories about ‘Cultural City Dobong’ where all residents can speak with one voice through online public forums for Cultural City Dobong using the cultural city website scheduled to open in June, and the cultural city creation plan will be established and submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism during the July contest period after consultation with Seoul City.

The cultural city designation will be finally selected by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in December. If the creation plan is approved, the district will qualify as a cultural preliminary city for one year.

Depending on the project results, it will be finally selected as a statutory cultural city in December 2021.

Dobong-gu, Changpoweon Festival Residents participating in camping during the festival are experiencing a shared meal by sharing the food they each brought. (2019. 10. 4.)

Lee Dong-jin, Mayor of Dobong-gu, stated, “The statutory cultural city designation will be the completion of Dobong-gu’s cultural city vision, which has aimed for a sustainable city through culture for 10 years, and at the same time, it will be a new leap forward and a core driving force for a greater Dobong focused on people.”

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