Jeonnam Province Selects 23 Projects Including 'Paper Pack Recycling' in Social Innovation Business Contest

[Muan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province announced on the 18th that it has finally selected 23 projects, including a paper pack recycling campaign, through the ‘Social Innovation Project’ contest.

‘Social Innovation’ is a new project implementation method where local residents take the lead in solving various problems faced by the community themselves, rather than being led by the government or local authorities.

This year, a total of 36 projects were submitted in three categories: general, expansion, and sustainability, reflecting the interest of Jeonnam residents in ‘Social Innovation.’

As a result of the judging by the project contest committee, 16 general projects, 5 expansion projects, and 2 sustainability projects were selected.

By project type, there are 6 projects for carbon reduction and environmental cleanup, 7 projects for solving local issues and improving resident spaces, and 10 projects for addressing blind spots in public services.

The carbon reduction and environmental cleanup category includes projects such as the paper pack recycling campaign, tumbler rental stations operation, marine and alley garbage cleanup, and environmental education.

The local issue resolution and resident space improvement category received high evaluations for projects such as preventing conflicts from noise between floors in apartment complexes, cultural exchanges between multicultural families and local residents, and revitalizing streams using microbial fermented soil balls.

The public service blind spot resolution category plans to implement programs such as integration programs for North Korean defectors and local residents, sharing and donation refrigerators and side dish home delivery, distribution of healing and companion plants to vulnerable groups, shopping proxy services for the elderly, and exchange programs between the elderly and local children.

Jeonnam Province plans to actively support the successful implementation of the ‘Social Innovation Project’ through project consulting and regional innovation lectures after providing project funds.

Son Jeomsik, Director of the Jeonnam Provincial Office of Autonomy and Administration, said, “We hope that many excellent cases that can be expanded nationwide will emerge through this year’s Social Innovation Project,” and added, “We will spare no support through consulting to ensure that residents become the main agents in solving local problems.”

Meanwhile, Jeonnam Province has been conducting social innovation contests since 2019 to strengthen resident autonomy capabilities and establish grassroots democracy. Last year, it launched the ‘Jeonnam Social Innovation Platform,’ composed of 137 organizations and groups, and is promoting 27 implementation agendas.

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