O Se-hoon Turns the Corner, Accelerates the '10-Year Seoul Plan'

6 Months After Inauguration as Seoul Mayor
Presented 'Seoul Vision 2030' After 105 Debates...Outlined 4 Future Visions
Promoted Seoul Run and Seoul-type Basic Income...Accelerated Redevelopment with 6 Regulatory Relaxations
Comprehensive Audit of Predecessor's Policies, Distancing from Civil Society...First National Audit Scheduled for 19-20

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon is giving a presentation at the 'Seoul Vision 2030 Announcement' held on the 15th in the main conference room of Seoul City Hall. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has completed six months in office. With a term of just over one year and an unprecedented COVID-19 situation, the navigation of the Oh Se-hoon administration was not easy. In particular, efforts to highlight policy distinctions from the late former Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon sometimes led to clashes with the Seoul Metropolitan Council, where members of the Democratic Party hold an absolute majority.

Since his inauguration on April 9, Mayor Oh has taken the first step to fulfill key campaign promises despite these unfavorable circumstances. On the 15th of last month, he announced the “Seoul Vision 2030,” a 10-year plan developed through a grand journey of 136 days involving 122 experts and citizens from various fields, and 105 rounds of discussions.

10-Year Grand Plan Announced After 105 Discussions

“Seoul Vision 2030” sets its core motto as “Seoul, the Fair City Running Again” and is composed of four main goals. The key points are to restore the broken ladder of social mobility and to recover the city’s competitiveness, which has sharply declined over the past decade, to a global top 5 level. To support this, Mayor Oh plans to promote 16 strategic goals and 78 policy tasks under four future visions: ▲Coexistence City ▲Global Leading City ▲Safe City ▲Future Sensibility City.

The restoration of the social mobility ladder, highlighted by the online education platform “Seoul Learn” and the bottom-up “Seoul-type Guaranteed Income,” which were strongly criticized by the Seoul Metropolitan Council, has also been fully launched. Mayor Oh stated, “Creating hope that tomorrow will be better is restoring the ladder of social mobility and is a fundamental duty. That is my political philosophy,” showing strong determination to push forward. Through Seoul Learn, Mayor Oh plans to provide high-quality educational content fairly to anyone without private education influenced by parents’ socioeconomic status. A Seoul city official explained, “Although there were some difficulties in consultations with the council, the project started in August and is currently providing free access to popular online lectures for 110,000 vulnerable youth.”

Education ‘Seoul Learn’ and Welfare ‘Guaranteed Income’ Take Shape

The pilot project for Guaranteed Income is also undergoing administrative procedures such as consultations with the Ministry of Health and Welfare ahead of its launch early next year. Once consultations conclude by the end of October, the plan is to conduct a three-year pilot project starting next year after further discussions with the council. Although it is a selective welfare policy contrasting with universal basic income and is used as a political argument between camps, the accumulated pilot project data is expected to serve as a foundation for establishing more sophisticated welfare policies.

The normalization of redevelopment and reconstruction, a highly sensitive issue, is also gaining momentum with the announcement of the “Six Major Redevelopment Regulation Relaxations.” Regarding redevelopment, the six major regulatory relaxation measures announced at the end of May have recently completed institutional improvements, and the stage of soliciting candidates for private redevelopment has been reached. This opens the way for private redevelopment zone designation for the first time in six years since 2015, with about 25 candidate sites selected to supply approximately 26,000 households, which is Mayor Oh’s goal. A Seoul city official said, “More than 60 inquiries have been received, showing strong interest on the ground,” adding, “The ‘Rapid Integrated Planning’ introduced through the six regulatory relaxations is a system designed to speed up the process by halving the review period while balancing public interest and project feasibility.”

Six Major Redevelopment Relaxations and Audit of Decades-Old Corruption

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the site of the Sillim 1 Redevelopment Promotion Zone in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 14th, listened to explanations about the development status and progress, and then spoke with residents. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

For reconstruction, a site-specific approach was taken to resolve long-standing issues through residents’ voices. Since Mayor Oh’s inauguration, the educational impact assessment for Jamsil 5th Complex, which had been a bottleneck for three years, was recently approved, and architectural design plans for six reconstruction complexes, including Bangbae Shindong-A, which had been stuck at the architectural review stage, were approved. Additionally, the Yeouido district unit plan is nearing completion, and normalization of major reconstruction projects in Mokdong and Apgujeong is underway.

Comprehensive audits targeting policies actively involving the private sector and civil society under former Mayor Park are also underway. Mayor Oh plans to rectify the Seoul Metropolitan Government by addressing problems in the structure and practices of private consignment and private subsidy projects, which were operated without proper performance verification despite nearly one trillion won of citizens’ tax money being invested during Park’s tenure. Following the decision to suspend the “Veranda-type Solar Power Subsidy Project” raised mainly by opposition parties next year, 14 private solar-related companies have been criminally reported on charges of fraud and embezzlement related to intentional business closure. Furthermore, projects such as the Nodeul Island complex cultural space initiated during the previous mayor’s term are also under audit, signaling major changes ahead.

Having passed the halfway point of his term, Mayor Oh will face his first national audit on the 19th and 20th. Policies such as Seoul Learn and Guaranteed Income, as well as the so-called “Erasing Park Won-soon” criticism of the “Restoring Seoul Metropolitan Government” initiative, are expected to be scrutinized. The redevelopment and reconstruction normalization policies are also likely to face criticism as Seoul’s housing prices continue to rise without signs of slowing down.

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