Gwangju City Holds Steering Committee Meeting for 'Social Innovation Platform'

Gwangju-type Job Project, Citizen Participation Solar Power Plant and 70 Other Agendas Identified

On the morning of the 15th, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, is taking a commemorative photo with Kim Yong-jip, Chairman of the Gwangju City Council, Jang Hwi-guk, Superintendent of Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, and other participants at the Gwangju Social Innovation Platform Promotion Committee meeting held in the city hall's medium conference room. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 15th that it held a meeting of the ‘Gwangju Social Innovation Platform’ 2020 Promotion Committee at the city hall’s medium conference room to discuss key agenda items.

Planned as part of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s ‘Local Problem Solving Platform’ project, the ‘Gwangju Social Innovation Platform’ plays a role in having residents directly identify local issues and collaborate with the government, local governments, and public institutions to solve these problems.

Since its launch last July at the Gwangju National Asia Culture Center, the platform has formed a promotion committee consisting of 36 public-private and public enterprises, including 12 public institutions from the Gwangju-Jeonnam Joint Innovation City in 2019, establishing a collaborative structure to solve local problems.

Especially this year, in addition to the existing promotion organizations, 10 new institutions including the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, five autonomous districts of Gwangju, Gwangju National University of Education, and Chonnam National University Hospital have joined, bringing the total number of promotion organizations to 46, all working together to solve local issues.

Last year, over 50 agenda items were discovered through roundtable meetings, online agenda proposals, and social campaigner camps, among which 15 local urgent agenda items with clear collaboration parties and execution willingness were implemented.

In 2020, the Gwangju Social Innovation Platform actively reflected citizens’ opinions to respond to the climate crisis and overcome the post-COVID-19 crisis, discovering 70 new agenda items through various channels such as online agenda proposals, proposals from collaborative institutions, social contribution matching proposals, field visits, and roundtable meetings. Currently, 25 agenda items are being executed.

First, as COVID-19 rapidly spread early this year, in collaboration with Korea Electric Power Corporation, support was provided to local children’s centers and social welfare institutions including ▲disinfection and quarantine of local children’s centers ▲production of ‘Safe Love Masks’ ▲agricultural product packages.

Additionally, agenda items to be promoted in collaboration with the local community include ▲‘Social Contribution Matching Day,’ an innovative social contribution created jointly by public institutions and companies ▲Gwangju-type job projects ▲village-based social economy living labs ▲solutions to illegal parking problems ▲permanent rental apartment village care housing ▲housing and self-reliance support for female victims of sexual violence ▲boomerang eco-bags ▲‘Youth Workshop School’ experimenting with youth independence ▲citizen-participatory solar power plants ▲bicycle lanes (Ra-do) ▲smart farms for family startups of people with developmental disabilities ▲Dabok Village job project linked to Jisan Village tourism resources ▲‘Nabi-nam’ project helping middle-aged men escape one-room apartments ▲zero-waste living labs to create a disposable-free daily life ▲agricultural product sales system using crowdfunding ▲future-type smart grid for smart power service systems.

Lee Yong-seop, mayor of Gwangju and co-chair of the Gwangju Social Innovation Platform Promotion Committee, said, “From now on, citizens, public institutions, local governments, and administration will collaborate to discover and solve hidden local problems,” adding, “I hope the Gwangju Social Innovation Platform will establish itself as a place of communication and solidarity, and as a hub for regional development and innovation.”

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