Ministry of the Interior and Safety Hosts Foreign Resident Support Best Practices Contest... Evaluation of 8 Outstanding Cases Including Seoul and Busan

Final Ranking Decided Among 8 Local Governments at Government Sejong Complex Auditorium on the 19th

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 18th that it will hold the '2021 Foreign Resident Support Best Practice Competition' at the Government Sejong Complex Auditorium on the 19th, where the final rankings among eight outstanding local governments will be decided.

Held for the second time following last year, this competition was organized to discover, share, and spread cases of local governments implementing communities where local residents and foreign residents live together in various fields such as daily life, welfare, employment, and safety.

To select the best practices, a nationwide call for submissions was conducted targeting local governments, resulting in 75 cases being submitted. The submitted cases underwent a first round of expert evaluation and a second round of public online voting, through which eight outstanding local governments promoting foreign resident settlement support and social integration in their communities were selected. The local governments chosen as best practices are Seoul, Busan, Sasang-gu in Busan, Daegu, Gwangsan-gu in Gwangju, Asan-si in Chungnam, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Seogwipo-si in Jeju.

During the competition, expert on-site evaluations and real-time preference assessments by residents including foreign residents will be conducted for the eight best cases. Based on the results, one grand prize, three excellence awards, and four encouragement awards will be determined. The winning local governments will receive a total of 400 million KRW in financial incentives, distributed according to the award levels.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to produce card news for the eight best cases and share and spread them through postings on local government websites and SNS promotions. Park Seong-ho, Director of the Local Autonomy and Decentralization Office, said, “We hope that by spreading successful best practices in local communities, the inconveniences experienced by foreign residents in their daily lives can be resolved,” adding, “We will continue to discover, share, and support the expansion of cases that foreign residents can tangibly experience in their daily lives to help them settle more stably in local communities.”

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