Seodaeseok, Mayor of Gwangju Seo-gu, Achieves Results in Priority Initiative 'Resident Autonomy'

Seo Dae-seok, Mayor of Seo-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Seo Daeseok, mayor of Seo-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, is seeing tangible results from his key initiative to strengthen ‘resident autonomy.’

It is regarded that a stable institutional foundation is being established to substantially enhance the authority of resident autonomy.

According to Seo-gu on the 16th, a total of six excellent cases were selected recently at the National Resident Autonomy Expo, including two grand prizes. They continued the honor of winning the most awards nationwide for five consecutive years.

Seo-gu (institutional policy sector) received the Autonomy and Decentralization Award, and the grand prizes went to Nongsong 1-dong (resident organization network sector) and Chipyeong-dong (resident autonomy sector). Excellence awards were given to Hwajeong 1-dong (learning community sector), Hwajeong 3-dong (resident autonomy sector), and Pungam-dong (resident autonomy sector).

In particular, following Geumho 1-dong last year, Nongsong 1-dong was nominated for the grand prize this year, demonstrating the strength to produce grand prize candidates for two consecutive years.

Along with this, Seo-gu was selected as a local government to conduct focused consulting by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and is carrying out a pilot project under the Presidential Committee on Autonomy and Decentralization.

Since taking office, Mayor Seo has consistently focused on strengthening resident autonomy under the slogan ‘Together with citizens, people-centered Seo-gu.’

First, the transfer of administrative service tasks to the Dong Resident Autonomy Committee was promoted step-by-step. This aims to enhance the sensitivity and responsiveness of administrative services to residents from a demand-centered perspective.

The transfer to the Dong level is divided into three stages, and the first stage, involving resident life-related tasks (cleaning, park management, advertisement maintenance, etc.), was completed in the first half of this year.

This phased transfer is intended to supplement and improve issues through pilot operations.

In the second phase, by 2022, tasks to improve resident convenience such as management of facilities like senior centers, transportation, and urban environment will be transferred. Ultimately, reporting and guidance tasks will also be transferred to establish a system where residents decide and execute public issues in their community independently.

To this end, the Dong Resident Autonomy Committees were expanded to eight and their membership increased. Additionally, to secure democracy and openness, a public lottery system was introduced for appointing autonomy committee members, creating an institutional foundation.

Not stopping there, the budget for resident autonomy activation projects was fully supported to secure execution power for resident autonomy.

The budget increased from 1.085 billion won last October to 1.876 billion won this year for supporting pilot operations of resident autonomy committees. Residents directly participate in all processes including discovering village projects and project implementation.

Mayor Seo Daeseok said, “We will continue to make every effort to build a unique autonomy model in Seo-gu where residents autonomously handle village issues and solve local public agendas.”

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