Gwangju City, Final Selection of 2021 Citizen Participation Budget Projects

Mayor Lee Yong-seop: "We Will Do Our Best to Prepare a Prosperous and Happy Future for Citizens"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 1st that it held an online citizens' general meeting on the 31st of last month to select the 2021 Citizen Participation Budget Projects and finally selected 63 projects.

About 100 general citizens and participation budget committee members participated through the city's official YouTube channel, BitTube, and only a minimum number of people, including the chairperson of the Citizen Participation Budget Committee, subcommittee chairpersons, the Citizens' Rights Committee, and district participation budget chairpersons, were present on site.

A total of 559 projects were submitted through a public contest held from March to April, and after project evaluations and online citizen voting until August, 63 projects (11.914 billion KRW) were finally selected at this general meeting.

In particular, for the first time this year, the authority to select citizen participation budget projects, which had been limited to citizen participation budget committee members, was expanded to general citizens by conducting online citizen voting, thereby granting practical authority to the citizens.

Also, the types of project submissions were diversified from the existing city administration participation type to city administration participation type, city administration cooperation type, and regional participation type.

Looking at the selected projects by type, the city administration participation type includes 26 projects with a budget of 8.859 billion KRW, such as ▲supporting costs for absorbent products for severe disabled persons' excretion ▲creating citizen shared spaces using vacant houses ▲“Light Up Gwangju” for improving living environments with crime-preventive structures ▲creating safe street environments, etc.

The city administration cooperation type includes 1 project with a budget of 1.5 billion KRW, which is the maintenance of the bicycle path along the Gwangju Stream.

The regional participation type includes 36 projects with a budget of 1.555 billion KRW, such as ▲operating village cultural spaces connecting people in Dong-gu ▲operating flea markets in Seo-gu ▲creating themed park walking trails in Nam-gu ▲creating safe school routes in Buk-gu ▲installing safe pedestrian zones on side roads in Dosan-dong, Gwangsan-gu, etc.

The selected projects will be submitted to the council after budget department review.

Until last year, about 3,700 projects were submitted through voluntary citizen participation, and 197 projects (39.3 billion KRW) were finally confirmed and implemented.

Mayor Lee Yong-seop said, “Projects planned, decided, and executed directly by citizens will be an opportunity to change citizens' lives and increase happiness indices,” adding, “While concentrating all local capabilities to block the spread of COVID-19 community infections, we will also do our best to prepare a prosperous and happy future for our citizens.”

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