[Interview] Jo Seong-il, Director of Seoul Facilities Corporation, "We Will Lead Public Institution Innovation Beyond Being a Policy Implementation Agency"

"Committed to becoming Seoul Facilities Corporation trusted and loved by citizens, we will do our best to excel in safety, innovation, and integrity in all areas"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] “Seoul Facilities Corporation is an agency that carries out 24 projects of Seoul City. Until last year, it strived to become a policy completion agency that improves problems at the policy execution sites and actively provides feedback. This year, we are sharing a vision with our employees to take a step further and lead ‘innovation in the public sector.’”

In an interview with this publication, Cho Seong-il, CEO of Seoul Facilities Corporation, said, “Basically, I ask the employees to devote 70% of their efforts to safely and properly managing the facilities entrusted by Seoul City, 20% to the role of a policy completion agency that practices policies on-site and improves them accordingly, and the remaining 10% to strive to lead innovation in the public sector.”

The report card received by Seoul Facilities Corporation at the end of last year was more brilliant than any other agency. Following two consecutive years of receiving the highest grade in the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s management evaluation, it also received the Presidential Citation for Contribution to the Development of Local Public Enterprises and the Grand Prize at the Active Administration Competition for open innovation and outstanding safety innovation cases at construction sites. With the continuous stream of awards, applause never ceased at the corporation’s office during the year-end and New Year period.

Cho Seong-il, a leading expert in urban safety in Korea, has been busy recently preparing proactively for the Serious Accident Punishment Act, which will be enforced in about seven months. The Act is scheduled to be enforced in January next year, with detailed enforcement ordinances to be announced in September. However, CEO Cho has recognized the importance of proactive response and has been steadily preparing with employees since early this year. By collecting risk factors from workplaces spread throughout Seoul, as well as 10 years’ worth of accident cases from other facilities corporations and overseas, they identified 480 potential serious accident risks. They carefully examined the causes, precautions, and preventive measures, stating, “We plan to complete short-term preventive measures within this year, dividing the measures into short-term and mid-to-long-term. Items requiring budget or time for improvement will be classified as mid-to-long-term measures and resolved annually.”

Especially since the purpose of the Serious Accident Punishment Act is to ensure the safety of citizens and workers, CEO Cho believes that internal consensus and voluntary activities by employees must precede. In addition to education, they are conducting a contest to discover difficult-to-implement safety and health-related regulations that each department must observe.

Since CEO Cho’s inauguration, Seoul Facilities Corporation has achieved considerable results by introducing ‘open innovation’ for the first time in the public sector. Among these, the achievements in the PSC bridge maintenance field deserve applause. “Recently, we have been holding open innovation sessions jointly with the Korean Society of Bridge and Structural Engineering, with over 100 experts participating each time. In particular, we aim to complete the standards for PSC internal tendon maintenance, which are unprecedented in Korea, by next year through the passionate collective intelligence combining theory and practice,” he said.

Recently, they have also been utilizing demolished bridges, previously regarded as waste, to establish safety evaluation standards for aging bridges. The Gaebong Overpass was selected as the optimal experimental subject for studying aging PSC bridges. It is being effectively used for non-destructive and destructive inspections.

In September last year, during a safety inspection of Cheongdam 1 Bridge, some internal tendons of the PSC girders supporting the bridge deck were found to be corroded. They urgently restricted heavy vehicle traffic and checked the safety status. Through non-destructive testing (drilling + endoscopic inspection), conducted for the first time domestically on a bridge in use, they concluded that it was safe to use and reopened traffic within two months. Following the external tendon case of Jeongneungcheon Overpass in 2016, this incident made them realize the risks of internal tendons and underscored the importance of safety management for aging bridges.

Another area where Seoul Facilities Corporation has been newly evaluated since CEO Cho’s appointment is ‘innovation.’ From his first day in office, CEO Cho minimized face-to-face reporting and ordered reports via email and KakaoTalk. “The purpose was to minimize the time and effort spent on reporting for both the reporter and the receiver, so that we could focus on work efficiency such as on-site verification and communication with employees,” he explained.

Then, in spring last year, the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, and they took the crisis as an opportunity to change the way of working, leading to innovative attempts. They implemented remote video conferencing and full-scale separated work shifts, and went a step further by introducing Korea’s first smart workstation equipped with childcare spaces to improve employees’ work concentration during telecommuting.

Recently, Seoul Facilities Corporation is preparing another innovative challenge. “Due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation, cultural and sports facilities such as the World Cup Stadium and Gocheok Sky Dome have been unable to hold large-scale performances and events, and merchants in underground shopping malls and DDP Fashion Mall are struggling with business. As a countermeasure, we are promoting the introduction of the ‘Metaverse.’”

They are attempting to introduce the concept of ‘Metaverse,’ a compound word of ‘Meta,’ meaning transcendence or abstraction, and ‘Universe,’ meaning the real world, into the corporation’s projects. CEO Cho said, “We formed a related task force composed only of young MZ generation employees, allowing them to communicate freely and actively generate ideas. The youthful ideas using the Metaverse will be applied to various projects such as cultural and sports facilities and underground shopping malls within the corporation.”

Lastly, the area they are focusing on is integrity. CEO Cho said, “Recently, the integrity of public institution executives and employees has become a very big issue. Although the corporation has already been striving to establish integrity throughout administration, including obtaining certification for the Anti-Corruption Management System, this year, all employees are determined to achieve the highest grade in integrity.” He concluded, “To become a Seoul Facilities Corporation trusted and loved by citizens, we will do our best to be the best in all areas of safety, innovation, and integrity.”

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