Seocho-gu Receives 'SA Highest Grade' for 5 Consecutive Years in Manifesto Pledge Implementation Evaluation

‘Seocho-type Shared Childcare Center’, Nationwide First Single-Person Household Support Center, etc. Local Governments Compete to Benchmark... Preparing for the Untact Era with SNS Communication, Establishing a Hotline for Immediate Response and Interaction by Publicly Sharing the District Mayor’s Mobile Phone

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Seocho-gu (Mayor Jo Eun-hee) has achieved the highest grade ‘SA’ for five consecutive years in the 2021 National Basic Local Government Heads’ Pledge Fulfillment and Information Disclosure Evaluation conducted by the Korea Manifesto Practice Headquarters.

The Korea Manifesto Evaluation Team conducted this evaluation from January to May targeting heads of basic local governments nationwide. The evaluation covered five areas: ▲pledge fulfillment completion ▲achievement of pledge goals ▲resident communication ▲web communication ▲pledge consistency, and classified results into five grades from SA to D.

Seocho-gu’s 7th term pledges actively address residents’ needs and social issues through a total of 50 projects across nine major fields: ▲safety ▲transportation ▲welfare ▲economy ▲environment & health ▲urban regeneration ▲childcare & education ▲culture & sports ▲communication.

The acquisition of the SA grade this time is the fruit of ‘life-oriented communication administration’ adapted to the non-face-to-face situation, leading ‘projects that become national standards’ through various innovative administrations despite the COVID-19 situation.

Currently, Seocho-gu’s pledges and idea policies serve as benchmarks for other local governments. Representative examples include ▲‘Seoripul Wondumak,’ a crosswalk shade structure spread nationwide ▲‘Shared Childcare Centers,’ which drastically reduced waiting times for child admission by combining different childcare facilities such as national/public/private/home daycare centers ▲‘Runway-type Crosswalk,’ which installed LED guide lights along crosswalks to significantly reduce nighttime traffic accidents ▲‘Smart Senior Policy,’ which helps reduce the digital gap among the elderly by providing kiosk education and support for smart device use ▲and the ‘Seocho-type Single-person Household Policy,’ initiated by opening the first single-person household support center nationwide in 2019.

In particular, the ‘Seocho-type Shared Childcare Centers’ and ‘Seocho-type Single-person Household Policy’ have recently been adopted by Seoul City, which is currently organizing teams and conducting pilot projects.

With these efforts, Seocho-gu maintains first place with an overwhelming gap over other local governments, having 88 excellent innovation cases registered in the ‘Government Innovation 1st Street’ operated by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Seocho-gu is also a leader in major urban infrastructure development. It designated the area around the Seoul Arts Center, a representative cultural and artistic infrastructure of Korea, as the nation’s first music culture district and opened the Seoripul Tunnel connecting Seocho-daero, which had been cut off for 40 years. Additionally, it resolved long-standing resident demands by creating a cultural and artistic complex town on the former Intelligence Service site.

Furthermore, the district continuously communicates with residents by establishing communication hotlines adapted to the non-face-to-face era. Various on-tact communication channels such as KakaoTalk and Facebook are operated, and since 2017, Mayor Jo has publicly shared her mobile phone number to promptly respond to residents’ ideas and complaints. Especially during the COVID-19 situation, this hotline has played a vital role in easy and fast communication with residents.

Seocho-gu Mayor Jo Eun-hee said, “Achieving the SA grade for five consecutive years is a result accomplished together with 1,500 Seocho colleagues who have worked hard to keep promises made to residents.” She added, “We will continue to carefully manage resident life policies and projects to bring about positive changes and strive to be a ‘People’s Livelihood First Penguin’ prioritizing life administration.”

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