Park Jun-hee, Gwanak District Mayor, Achieves Major Success Securing 630.4 Billion Won in 2020 National and City Funds

Secured 630.4 Billion KRW in External Funds Including National and City Budgets for Regional Economic Development in the 3rd Year of Minseon 7th Term... Amid COVID-19 Crisis, All Staff United to Win 109 Public Projects in 2020, Securing 19.5 Billion KRW... Established 'External Policy Team' After Minseon 7th Term Launch to Focus Administrative Efforts on External Fund Acquisition

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Junhee) has achieved a significant accomplishment by securing an impressive 630.4 billion KRW in external funding from the central government and Seoul Metropolitan Government over three years of the 7th local government administration to overcome its poor financial situation.

After the launch of the 7th local government administration, the district carried out an organizational restructuring and formed the ‘External Policy Team’ responsible for overseeing public contest projects and evaluations by external organizations, focusing administrative efforts on securing external funds.

Fundamentally, through various efforts such as reviewing repeatedly implemented public contest projects, focusing on policy projects and social contribution projects aligned with campaign pledges, establishing an information-sharing system for each contest project, and holding regular reporting sessions and ad hoc evaluation meetings, the district actively responded to attracting external funding.

Mayor Park Junhee explained, “A large budget is required to steadily implement the 72 practical tasks under six major strategies in the four-year district administration plan of the 7th local government administration. It is no exaggeration to say that the success of the 7th local government administration depends on how much external funding is secured.”

To successfully implement the campaign pledges of the 7th local government administration, the district focused on securing external funds in addition to its own finances, resulting in securing 57 billion KRW in national funds and 564 billion KRW in city funds by the end of December last year.

The detailed types of funding include public contest projects (228 cases, 81.6 billion KRW), ▲special grants (122 cases, 40.5 billion KRW), ▲special local grants (40 cases, 14.7 billion KRW), ▲reallocated projects such as comprehensive project funds (214 cases, 376.68 billion KRW), and ▲awards from evaluations by external organizations (161 cases, 4.67 billion KRW).

Public contest projects are budget-supported projects combining regional characteristics and creative administration, serving as an excellent means to fill the gap in project funding while receiving outstanding evaluations for district administration.

In 2020, despite the COVID-19 crisis, the district stood out in contest fields aimed at revitalizing the local economy, such as customized local jobs and alley market revitalization. It secured 1.4 billion KRW for ‘Seoul-type New Deal Jobs’ and ‘Customized Local Industry Job Creation,’ and 3.9 billion KRW for ‘New Market and Living Commercial Area Revitalization’ and ‘Traditional Market Revitalization Support Projects,’ totaling 19.5 billion KRW across 109 projects.

Moreover, even though various external organization competitions and evaluations were significantly reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the district achieved a total of 48 awards in evaluations by the central government, Seoul Metropolitan Government, and other external organizations last year.

This is a result of the 7th local government administration’s policies in Gwanak-gu being recognized not only by residents but also externally.

In particular, it showed remarkable achievements in the field of knowledge administration, winning the highest honor, the ‘Korea Knowledge Award’ (Prime Minister’s Award) conducted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and was honored as an excellent institution for two consecutive years in the ‘2020 Local Government Innovation Evaluation.’

Mayor Park Junhee said, “All employees united their efforts to attract external funds to enhance urban competitiveness and residents’ quality of life. In 2021, we will apply for public contest projects in various fields such as local economy, urban regeneration, welfare, and culture and arts to expand the necessary funds for district issues and residents’ long-standing projects.”

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