[Interview] Kim Young-jong, Mayor of Jongno-gu: "Resident Happiness is the Top Priority in District Administration"

Promoting the Happiness Dream Project to Find Happiness Standards in Residents' Lives and Reflect Them in Policies, Developing Jongno Happiness Indicators... Establishing the Nation's First Dedicated Happiness Team 'Happiness Dream Team' and Recruiting Collaborative Resident Partners 'Happiness Dream Leaders' to Propose Policies for Happiness Promotion, Derive Local Issues, Suggest Alternatives, and Lead Resident Participation in Overall Policy and Community Activities

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] “As COVID-19 has struck the world, deepening social polarization and inequality, and life has become tougher than before, happiness has become a pressing issue of our time. We will always contemplate and research ways to realize happiness through policies to create a community where everyone can be happy together.”

Kim Young-jong, Mayor of Jongno-gu, stated this in an interview with this publication. Jongno-gu has implemented meticulous policies across all sectors during the 5th to 7th elected terms, promoting a healthy city where social and individual health harmonize, a cultural city where tradition breathes, and a warm welfare city without blind spots in welfare.

However, they never forgot that the foundation of these efforts and goals is ‘resident happiness.’ Mayor Kim said, “Providing a safe environment ultimately aims for residents’ happiness, and cultural development and social health are all about creating a community where residents are happy and satisfied. To this end, Jongno-gu has been working on the Happiness Dream Project and developing the Jongno Happiness Index to find happiness standards in residents’ lives and reflect them in policies.”

Since 2015, Jongno-gu has conducted the Jongno Happiness Dream Project, discussing and empathizing with ‘Jongno’s happiness’ together with residents and putting it into practice. On January 1, 2015, it was the first in the nation to establish a dedicated happiness team called the ‘Happiness Dream Team,’ recruiting cooperative resident partners called ‘Happiness Dream Leaders’ to lead resident participation in policy proposals for happiness promotion, identifying local issues and suggesting alternatives, and community activities. Mayor Kim emphasized, “The discourse on ‘how to make residents happier’ is essential, and for the continuous progress of happiness policies, there must be fundamental principles for future initiatives. This led to the creation of an ordinance containing the effectiveness of happiness-related policy projects and the direction of resident-led policies, which is the Seoul Metropolitan City Jongno-gu Resident Happiness Promotion Ordinance.” This ordinance is the first of its kind among Seoul’s autonomous districts and the second nationwide.

The ordinance defines ‘happiness’ as ‘a state of well-being and satisfaction experienced by residents in their daily lives.’ Key provisions include ▲the mayor’s responsibility to promote resident happiness ▲establishment of basic and implementation plans ▲collection of opinions from residents and experts to discover and promote happiness policies ▲resident happiness surveys and policy reflection ▲happiness promotion education to share awareness about happiness.

This reflects Mayor Kim Young-jong’s strong commitment to not neglect any opinions related to happiness and to incorporate them into district administration.

In 2018, Jongno-gu developed the ‘Jongno Happiness Index’ through Seoul’s resident participatory budget, consisting of 30 sub-indicators across four areas: ▲individual ▲family ▲Jongno environment ▲regulatory system. Mayor Kim said, “Although various domestic and international research institutions, central government agencies, and local governments have studied and developed happiness indicators measuring quality of life, they were broad-scale indicators that did not reflect regional characteristics, making them difficult for local governments to use. Jongno-gu uses the Jongno Happiness Index, which reflects the region’s socio-structural characteristics, residents’ subjective perceptions, and key policies, as a basis to set district administration directions and as foundational data for various project plans.”

This year, Jongno-gu will leverage its valuable experience and achievements as a long-time leader in happiness policies to implement the ‘Jongno Well-being Index Round-up# Project.’ Based on mutual cooperation among residents, experts, and the district office, the project focuses on ▲securing sustainability of happiness policies ▲practicing happiness and improving happiness awareness ▲spreading consensus on happiness through detailed initiatives.

Residents will play the role of active participants, experts will provide policy advice and proposals, and the district office will handle actual project execution and administrative support. Mayor Kim stated, “Having laid the institutional foundation for policy-making on happiness so far, this year we will establish sustainable strategies to enhance residents’ happiness, who are going through difficult times due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.”

As part of this, Jongno-gu will promote the ‘Development of Happiness Impact Assessment System,’ ‘Resident Happiness Survey and Analysis,’ and ‘Establishment of Basic Happiness Plan,’ and from this month, will open a Happiness School to operate educational programs to spread happiness awareness within the local community. Mayor Kim said, “We have made various attempts to diagnose the current state of happiness in Jongno-gu and build a solid consensus with residents. Going forward, we will use resident happiness as a milestone for solving local issues and devote ourselves to establishing sustainable happiness policies. We will make resident happiness the top priority in district administration and continue our efforts.”

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