Thermal Power Plant 'Jae' Becomes Eco-Friendly Fertilizer... Ministry of the Interior and Safety Selects 5 Outstanding Cases of Proactive Local Government Administration

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety selected five local governments that actively promoted proactive administration with creative ideas, such as converting aging traditional markets into knowledge industry centers and recycling ash generated from wood pellet thermal power plants into eco-friendly fertilizers.

On the 17th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced five cases of ‘Excellent Proactive Administration by Local Governments in the 2nd Quarter of 2021’ that actively responded to socio-economic environmental changes and revitalized local economies.

The local government cases selected for regulatory relief in the 2nd quarter this year received high evaluations as proactive administration examples preparing for the future of the region through revitalizing the livelihood economy, promoting regional balanced New Deal, and Green New Deal initiatives. A total of 627 proactive administration cases were submitted by local governments in the 2nd quarter and underwent internal and external reviews.

Daegu Metropolitan City became the first nationwide to convert aging traditional markets into knowledge industry centers, providing affordable production facility locations for small and medium-sized enterprises and laying the foundation for revitalizing the local economy. To smoothly promote the aging market regeneration project, Daegu City changed the land use zone and obtained a legal interpretation from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to quickly secure ownership of the project site.

Gyeongsangnam-do improved regulations to recycle ash (BioChar) generated from wood pellet thermal power plants as eco-friendly fertilizer instead of landfill disposal, creating an economic effect of 21.6 billion KRW annually. As a result, the Rural Development Administration revised the fertilizer process standards and designation notices under the Fertilizer Control Act to enable recycling of thermal power plant ash as eco-friendly fertilizer.

Hoengseong County in Gangwon-do developed and promoted the distribution of a ‘farm-scale livestock manure management device’ to reduce the burden on small-scale livestock farms after the ‘livestock manure composting regulation’ was strengthened, increasing the burden on livestock farmers. When small-scale farms actively requested government support due to mandatory maturity inspections of manure-emitting farms, Hoengseong County developed easy-to-use compost turning equipment, filed a patent application, and plans to pilot and distribute it nationwide.

Uijeongbu City in Gyeonggi-do proposed ‘two-house adjacent shelters’ as a new alternative for ‘shelters for abused children,’ contributing to the rapid nationwide expansion of shelters for abused children. Uijeongbu City rents and operates two LH purchased rental houses for abused children.

Cheongyang County in Chungcheongnam-do contributed to improving productivity of small-scale farms by actively building infrastructure and providing consulting for smart farm dissemination, considering that small farms occupy 90% of vegetable and fruit facility greenhouses in the region. After establishing the basic plan for the Smart Agriculture Integrated Control Center, Cheongyang County installed smart agriculture sensors in 110 farms, developed the Cheongyang Farm (CYF) app and smart control platform infrastructure, and led smart farm activation by providing non-face-to-face technical guidance and consulting.

Park Jae-min, Director of the Local Finance and Economy Office, said, “Proactive administration is always timely,” and added, “We will actively discover and spread highly perceptible proactive administration cases together with local governments at the forefront of administrative services so that the public can restore their daily lives and embrace new hope.”

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