Gwangju City and Citizens' Rights Commission to Hold 'Gwangju Citizens' Assembly' with Proposals and Decisions by Citizens This Year

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City and the Gwangju Citizens' Rights Committee announced on the 16th that this year's Gwangju Citizens' Assembly will be promoted differently from the existing method, where citizens propose and decide on Gwangju-specific agendas for the Gwangju community, and together with citizens, prepare and implement practical plans for the Gwangju community.

For the past three years, the administration has led the process, and when citizens proposed ideas, the administration only carried them out. This year, it is a citizen movement that goes one step further, where citizens decide on the agenda, prepare practical plans, and the administration and various sectors of civil society implement them together.

Citizen proposals can be submitted by anyone from July 17 to July 31 on the ‘2020 Gwangju Citizens' Assembly’ section within the ‘Baro Communication Gwangju’ platform currently operated by Gwangju Metropolitan City.

Also, proposals that receive many ‘likes’ and support upon registration will be selected as the top 10 preliminary agendas for the Citizens' Assembly.

Unlike previous proposals, the 2020 Gwangju Citizens' Assembly proposals (agendas) are tasks that embody the Gwangju spirit and can be practiced through solidarity and cooperation by all citizens. They are future-oriented practical tasks to create a better Gwangju or tasks that can solve crises (problems) faced by the Gwangju community.

Therefore, specific local (village) civil complaints or profit-making projects of specific organizations or companies are excluded from selection.

During this period, 200 citizen panels will also be recruited. Panels will be selected considering region, gender, and age group, and the selected citizens (panels) will participate in the assembly to select the final agenda. The assembly will be held on a Saturday afternoon (scheduled for September 12), where all citizens can participate.

The top 10 preliminary agendas are selected based on the number of ‘likes’ and support, and then through 10 days of online and offline voting (each person can vote for up to 3 agendas), the top 3 public agendas will be decided. Experts will participate in each agenda to prepare practical tasks.

The final agenda will be selected through representative presentations, public discussions, and voting by citizen panels at the Citizens' Assembly site regarding the top 3 agendas.

This year, once the final agenda is selected, a ‘Cross-Citizen Agenda Promotion Committee’ will be formed, involving citizens, administration, council, institutions, organizations, experts, and various sectors to prepare practical plans by each institution and organization.

The practical plans for the final agenda will be announced to Gwangju citizens through a declaration of practice, and from 2021, the agenda of the Gwangju community will be actively implemented as a citizen movement together with citizens. In particular, to ensure the execution power of the declaration of practice, the achievements of the promotion will be reflected in the planning of the next year's assembly.

Choi Young-tae, chairman of the Citizens' Rights Committee, said, “The Citizens' Assembly started with the purpose of inheriting the National Democratic Rally of May 18, 1980, and it is the entire process of democracy where citizens propose, empathize, discuss, and vote together.” He added, “We hope all citizens will join in taking the first step toward future change through the upgraded 2020 Gwangju Citizens' Assembly in Gwangju, a democratic city where citizens are the owners.”

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