Why Did Gwanak-gu Hold a 'Cooperative Public Forum' with Dong Residents?

Collecting Residents' Opinions through 'DongneBangne, Gwanak Cooperative Deliberation Forum' Led by Resident Participation... Realizing Participatory Democracy Where Administration and Residents Solve Gwanak Urban Environment Issues Together Post-Pandemic

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) will hold the ‘Neighborhood by Neighborhood, Cooperative Gwanak Public Forum’ to realize innovation, inclusion, and cooperative governance, the core operational values of the 7th local government.

This initiative aims to actively respond to the complex and diverse ‘urban environmental issues’ emerging after the COVID-19 pandemic by addressing them through cooperative governance with the private sector rather than an administration-led approach, adapting to the changing future society.

The ‘Neighborhood by Neighborhood, Cooperative Gwanak Public Forum’ will be held from the 14th to the 23rd on the 8th floor auditorium of the district office. About 100 residents from each district will participate in a total of eight sessions to gather residents’ opinions on solving local issues.

Each session will involve 20 to 25 residents, and will be conducted strictly following COVID-19 prevention guidelines such as temperature checks, visitor log completion, and social distancing.

The residents’ opinions collected at the forum will be concretized through topic-specific public forums and cooperative meetings involving residents, administration, and experts. If finally selected as a cooperative task in the 2022 Community Innovation Plan, the project will proceed with city subsidies and be implemented by an execution promotion team composed of both public and private sectors.

Additionally, depending on the scale and nature of the proposed ideas, they will be classified into resident participation budgets, village community contest projects, etc., to ensure that residents’ brilliant ideas are used appropriately.

Meanwhile, this year, eight cooperative tasks have been selected, including ▲creating a Gwanak-style plaza culture ▲promoting waste separation and disposal as a daily habit ▲operating a citizen promotion team for the construction of public nursing facilities, receiving 509 million KRW in city funds for implementation.

Residents wishing to participate in the public forum can apply by phone to the Gwanak-gu Office’s Public-Private Cooperation Division by the 12th, with up to five participants per district accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Since the launch of the 7th local government, the district has been fully committed to creating cooperative Gwanak through broad communication with residents, including operating the 365-day online Gwanak Office where residents can present various opinions anytime and anywhere.

Mayor Park Jun-hee said, “Through this public forum, we will work with residents to discover agendas and concretize cooperative tasks for recovering livelihoods that have become difficult after COVID-19,” adding, “We will continue to prioritize communication with residents through various channels and take a step forward in realizing participatory democracy.”

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