Gwangju-type Resident General Assembly Model, Government 'Recognizes'

Presidential Committee on Autonomy and Decentralization Proposes Agreement to Gwangju City

Gwangju City, Education Office, and Autonomy and Decentralization Committee Sign Mutual Cooperation Agreement

On the 19th, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, attended the 'Mutual Cooperation Agreement Ceremony for Discovering and Expanding the Gwangju-type Resident General Assembly Model' and took a commemorative photo after signing the agreement with Kim Soon-eun, Chairperson of the Presidential Committee on Autonomy and Decentralization, and Jang Hwi-guk, Superintendent of the City Education Office. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the morning of the 19th that Mayor Lee Yong-seop, Superintendent of Education Jang Hwi-guk, and Kim Soon-eun, Chairperson of the Presidential Committee on Local Autonomy, representing the three institutions, signed an agreement to mutually cooperate in discovering and spreading the Gwangju-type Resident Assembly model nationwide.

This agreement was proposed to Gwangju City as the first among local governments nationwide by the Presidential Committee on Local Autonomy. Taking this agreement as an opportunity, the committee will collaborate annually with Gwangju City and the City Office of Education to promote pilot projects starting this year.

The Gwangju-type Resident Assembly model refers to a form of resident assembly held based on village assemblies where residents from various social strata within neighborhoods (dong) or villages, including students and youth (schools), apartment communities, and village communities, participate to propose agenda items to the resident assembly.

Last year, at the 18th National Resident Autonomy Expo, Gwangju City achieved the distinction of having resident autonomy activities from 19 neighborhoods (dong) selected as exemplary cases, winning awards in all five categories.

In particular, Geumho 1-dong in Seo-gu received high praise and won the grand prize for conducting school-specific village assemblies targeting students and youth at four schools (Geumho Middle School, Geumbu Elementary School, Geumho Elementary School, and Sangmu Elementary School) prior to holding the resident assembly to discover agenda items.

Accordingly, the Presidential Committee on Local Autonomy decided to jointly cooperate with Gwangju City and the City Office of Education to discover and spread the Gwangju-type Resident Assembly model, continuously promote pilot projects, and encourage student and youth participation in autonomous activities, targeting Gwangju City as the local government with the strongest resident autonomy foundation and capabilities nationwide.

This year’s pilot project, organized by the Presidential Committee on Local Autonomy together with Seo-gu, will be conducted on the 23rd and 30th of this month in Geumho 1-dong and Pungam-dong, Seo-gu, featuring visiting youth autonomy schools, school and youth assemblies, and apartment assemblies. After implementation, promotional videos will be produced and distributed nationwide jointly under the names of Gwangju City and the committee.

Starting with Seo-gu this year, Gwangju City plans to explore expansion plans to include five autonomous districts next year so that more capable neighborhoods (dong) can participate in the committee’s pilot projects and be discovered as Gwangju-type Resident Assembly models.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop stated, “The approximately 760 village communities in Gwangju City are citizen-driven, for citizens, and by citizens, with everyone participating, communicating, and striving for change and innovation to realize the uniqueness of Gwangju.” He added, “I hope this agreement will serve as an opportunity for another ‘Gwangju-type (Resident Assembly) model’ to spread nationwide, following the Gwangju-type jobs and Gwangju-type artificial intelligence business models.”

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