Gwangju City Citizens' Rights Committee Confirms This Year's Operation Plan to 'Empower Citizens'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] The Gwangju Metropolitan City Citizens' Rights Committee (Chairman Choi Young-tae) held its 23rd meeting on the 2nd and finalized the 2021 operational plan with the goal of “Being by the citizens' side and empowering citizens through the Citizens' Rights Committee.”

Due to COVID-19, the meeting was held via video conference, during which they shared citizen policy proposals and participation achievements through “BaroSotong Gwangju” and decided to focus on strengthening on-site communication and solidifying citizen participation this year.

Accordingly, the key initiatives include ▲strengthening on-site communication through on-site meetings, policy recommendation field inspections, and On-site Listening Days ▲deriving effective policy improvement plans through organic cooperation with related city institutions and departments ▲enhancing the operation of citizen-proposed policy processes ▲and operating an open public forum for citizen-led resolution of social conflicts and policy issues.

First, to resolve grievances and complaints closest to the citizens, they decided to focus on on-site citizen communication by actively operating field inspections, on-site meetings, and On-site Listening Days.

Additionally, to more effectively address citizen grievances, they plan to strengthen organic cooperation with related city institutions and departments to derive actionable policy improvement plans.

Policy recommendations will be promptly reflected in city administration, and continuous post-monitoring will be conducted to systematically manage and ensure actual improvements in citizens' lives.

To ensure that citizen participation through BaroSotong Gwangju is operated substantively, the process from proposal to policy implementation will be systematically supported.

At the start of online discussions, rapid and proactive information will be provided to citizens to facilitate substantive discussions on proposals.

The progress of proposals will be disclosed in real-time, and the policy reflection status of proposals will be regularly monitored and made public. Furthermore, proposals requiring in-depth discussion will be addressed through special committees including external experts to derive high-quality policy improvement plans.

Based on the Citizens' Rights Committee’s citizen surveys and active public discussions last year to resolve one of Gwangju’s biggest challenges?the relocation of Gwangju’s civilian and military airports?they will also focus on operating an open public forum for citizens.

It is expected that citizen-led resolution of social conflicts and policy issues will greatly enhance the trust and transparency of Gwangju’s city administration.

Alongside this, the Citizens' Rights Committee will also promote the 2021 Citizens' Assembly where citizens propose, decide, and execute policies, the climate crisis response action plan selected as the final citizen agenda in 2020, the discovery of citizen participatory budgets, and the review and evaluation of major city projects.

As the results of reflecting citizen proposals in city administration spread by word of mouth among citizens, the communication channel for proposals, “BaroSotong Gwangju,” surged from 106,212 users in 2019 to 300,270 last year, and the number of citizen proposals more than doubled from 309 in 2019 to 629 last year.

Chairman Choi Young-tae of the Citizens' Rights Committee said, “Since its launch in August 2018, we have strived to view city administration from the citizens’ perspective and improve unreasonable policies and systems through 16 policy recommendations, including the relocation of Gwangju’s civilian and military airports. Going forward, we will continue to solidify a citizen participation culture unique to Gwangju, where citizens lead social change and innovation.”

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