Yongsan-gu, Resident Participation Budget Electronic Voting

From February 2 to 27, Yongsan-gu residents or local business employees must select 4 preferred projects on the Seoul City eVoting site

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Yongsan-gu (Mayor Seong Jang-hyun) will conduct the 2022 Resident Participatory Budget electronic voting (M-Voting) from August 2 to 27.

The participants are residents of Yongsan-gu or employees of businesses located in Yongsan-gu, and the selected budget scale is 1.6 billion KRW.

The district proposed 20 projects for voting. By category, there are ▲2 administrative and economic projects ▲4 health and welfare projects ▲6 urban park projects ▲8 safety and construction projects.

In the administrative and economic category, projects include replacing the old elevator at Yongmun-dong community center and installing insect screens at Bogwang-dong community center.

In the health and welfare category, projects include a healing program for childcare workers, installation of solar signposts for safe alleyway navigation, installation of a book reservation, lending, and return machine at Hangangno-dong resident center’s small library, and installation of ceiling-type heaters in public restrooms.

In the urban park category, projects include maintenance of the Sowol-gil resident rest area, greening of the traffic island at Noksapyeong Station, maintenance of tree protection plates in Namyeong-dong, street tree maintenance on Hyochangwon-ro, remodeling of public restrooms at Dowon Children’s Park, and maintenance of leftover land near Hannam Bridge.

The safety and construction category covers creating safe roads around Sinheung Senior Center, replacing pavement blocks in Wonhyo-ro 2-ga, expanding automatic liquid spreaders for snow removal on slopes, road maintenance at Yongmun Market, expanding smart shade shelters, repairing old stairs on Itaewon-ro, maintaining security lights in Cheongpa-dong university area, and creating bright pedestrian paths.

The total proposed project cost is 2.274 billion KRW. The district will collect voting results from general residents (70%) and the Resident Participatory Budget Committee (30%) to set priorities.

A district official said, “We received 101 proposed projects, reviewed them through relevant departments and the Resident Participatory Budget Committee, and finalized the voting list,” adding, “Please select up to four projects you like on the Seoul M-Voting site.”

The next year’s resident participatory budget scale is 2 billion KRW (1.6 billion KRW for general district projects, 400 million KRW for neighborhood projects). General district projects can be allocated up to 300 million KRW per project (70 million KRW for event-type projects), and neighborhood projects up to 30 million KRW per project.

The district established the resident participatory budget operation plan in January, followed by proposal solicitation (March to May), feasibility review (May to June), and proposal evaluation (July).

The neighborhood projects (22 projects) were selected last month.

Considering the COVID-19 situation, the district will skip the resident general meeting and finalize the budget after the district council’s review by December.

Seong Jang-hyun, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, said, “We have been operating the resident participatory budget system since 2011 for transparent financial management and fair resource allocation,” and added, “We hope residents show great interest and participation so that projects can be smoothly selected.”

In 2021, the district’s resident participatory budget projects included 39 projects (23 general district projects, 16 neighborhood projects). Last year, the district received 112 resident proposals, reviewed them through departments, the Resident Participatory Budget Committee, and resident voting to finalize the details.

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