Significant Increase in Support for Local Governments to Develop Spatial Environment Strategies

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The government is stepping up support for local governments to establish spatial environment strategies.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced on the 7th that it will officially launch the "2020 Private Experts - Spatial Environment Strategy Plan Establishment Support Project," in which frontline local governments appoint private experts in architecture and urban fields to establish spatial environment strategy plans.

After document review, presentations, and comprehensive evaluations, the Ministry selected 12 local governments as final support targets and plans to officially proceed with the project through a local government kickoff meeting within this month. Four areas including Paju-si in Gyeonggi, Chuncheon and Wonju-si in Gangwon, and Jinju-si in Gyeongnam were selected as continuous support targets following last year, while eight areas including Seongnam-si in Gyeonggi, Seo-gu in Incheon, and Gongju-si in Chungnam were newly selected. Considering that some local governments had difficulty participating due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, an additional call for applications for two more areas will also be conducted.

The Private Experts - Spatial Environment Strategy Plan Establishment Support Project was first launched last year to build a system allowing private experts to participate in local government public projects and to lay the foundation for regional landscapes to be created and managed based on plans. As a result, public architecture and development projects in the region, which were previously conducted as simple administrative tasks, have greatly improved in design quality and project implementation capabilities through the involvement of general and public architects. Furthermore, by establishing design and management directions for the entire region through the plan, an environment was created where various architecture, urban, and landscape projects can be integrated and managed consistently.

The Ministry plans to expand the scale and targets of this year’s support project while also continuing support for existing target areas to focus on nationwide expansion and foundation establishment.

First, recognizing the difficulty of budget acquisition for basic local governments, the support targets are limited to basic local governments, and the number of supported locations and the cost for establishing spatial environment strategy plans have been doubled compared to last year. Also, noting that only 21 out of 226 basic local governments (9.3%) have introduced the private expert support system, continuous and new support will be operated together for institutional establishment and expansion. For newly supported targets, support will be linked with the spatial environment strategy plan establishment project to build a landscape management system through public-private collaboration from the initial stage.

Kim Sang-moon, Director of Architectural Policy at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, said, "Through this support project, local governments will create an environment where projects can be continuously promoted based on long-term strategies and plans, enhancing urban landscapes into premium quality. This is expected to contribute not only to improving residents' living conditions but also to enhancing regional competitiveness through job creation driven by tourism demand."

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