Why Is There a Growing Movement for Resident Autonomy in Gangdong-gu?

Introducing 'Gangdong JachiON,' the First Resident Autonomy Platform in the District... Village Projects Proposed by Residents, Autonomy Plans Decided by Resident Voting

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Gangdong-gu (Mayor Lee Jeong-hoon) will hold a ‘Resident General Assembly,’ where residents directly decide on self-governance plans through voting, from July 1 to 15 according to each neighborhood’s schedule.

The Resident General Assembly is a forum for participation and public discussion where residents directly identify necessary issues for their village, engage in discussions, and then conduct priority voting to finalize the 2022 self-governance plan.

Any resident living or active in the respective neighborhood can participate.

To this end, Gangdong-gu has newly organized resident autonomy committees for each neighborhood since early this year, recruiting committee members to develop agendas aimed at realizing daily self-governance.

The self-governance agendas, after deliberative discussions, are decided as the 2022 self-governance plan through participation voting by residents meeting the quorum (0.5?1.0% of the neighborhood population).

In particular, Gangdong-gu developed the ‘Gangdong Jachi ON’ resident autonomy platform website?the first of its kind in an autonomous district?to expand resident participation and raise awareness of self-governance activities, enabling residents to vote online without visiting the site.

‘Gangdong Jachi ON’ opened on June 18, and already over 3,600 residents have completed voting on their neighborhood’s self-governance plan. The voting results will be announced on the day of the general assembly, and the assembly video can also be viewed through ‘Gangdong Jachi ON.’

Lee Jeong-hoon, Mayor of Gangdong-gu, stated, “The Resident General Assembly is a venue that realizes direct democracy where residents lead district administration themselves,” and added, “We will spare no administrative support to help the resident autonomy committees grow into practical representative bodies that realize daily self-governance.”

Meanwhile, Gangdong-gu’s resident autonomy committees were piloted in five neighborhoods in 2019 and have been fully expanded to 17 neighborhoods this year. Additionally, with the establishment of the administrative neighborhood Sangil 2-dong, more resident autonomy committees will be added in the second half of this year.

Detailed schedules and participation methods for the 2021 Gangdong-gu Resident General Assembly can be found on the ‘Gangdong Jachi ON’ website or at the respective neighborhood resident autonomy committees.

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