Naju City Pledges to Become the 'Center of Honam and Energy Capital' at New Year's Ceremony

[Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong] On the 3rd, Naju City, Jeollanam-do held a kick-off ceremony to mark the start of the 2022 Year of the Black Tiger administration and pledged a vigorous leap forward to build "Naju, the center of Honam and the energy capital."

According to the city, the kick-off ceremony was held with about 60 participants including the mayor, vice mayor, heads of bureaus and offices, heads of departments and divisions, and heads of towns, townships, and neighborhoods. The event proceeded in the order of New Year's greetings, reading of the civil servant charter, New Year's address, and reading of the New Year's resolution.

This year, which marks the end of the 7th elected administration, the city set six major operational directions: "supporting full recovery of daily life from COVID-19," "strategic promotion of leading policy tasks," "realization of cooperative autonomous agriculture," "establishment of the status of a cultural, arts, and tourism city," "proactive response to Innovation City Season 2," and "implementation of open administration in the era of local autonomy."

The city plans to promote meticulous quarantine measures prioritizing citizen safety and recovery of the livelihood economy, acquire international safety city certification to build economic support infrastructure and foster an advanced safety culture, and activate three major friendly city projects for women, children, and the elderly.

Leading policy tasks such as the "Gwangju-Naju Metropolitan Railway Network Construction Project," which was reflected in last year's 4th National Railroad Network Plan, ecological restoration of the Yeongsan River, designation of Geumseongsan Provincial Park, restoration of Mahan Temple, and relocation of LG Chem Naju Plant within the jurisdiction will accelerate policy implementation through open public-private cooperation and adoption as national agenda items.

Along with establishing a virtuous cycle system for local food with projects such as the "Naju-type Local Food Certification System," "Opening of the Second Agricultural Product Processing Center," and "Rural New Vitality Plus Project," the city will also intensify efforts to revitalize the depressed rural areas by fostering young farmers, expanding infrastructure for return-to-farming and return-to-village, and preparing measures to activate agricultural workforce supply and demand.

Cultural, arts, and tourism activation policies based on 2,000 years of history, including "Establishment of Cyber Naju Studies Archive," "Cultural Regeneration of the Old Naju Theater," "Construction of the Namdo Righteous Army History Museum," and "Restoration and Maintenance of Naju Eupseong, Naju Mokgwana, and Hyanggyo," will also be carefully managed.

As Naju City, which claims to be the energy capital of Korea through the creation of an energy industry-academia-research cluster, this year will focus all efforts on attracting national large-scale research facilities such as the opening of Korea Energy Polytechnic University, the opening of KEPCO Energy New Technology Research Institute, and the Ultra-High Power Laser Center.

At the same time, aiming for proactive response to the national policy direction of the second phase of public institution relocation to local areas, "Innovation City Season 2," the city is concentrating administrative power on establishing a promotion system and attraction strategy with Jeollanam-do and 16 relocated public institutions in innovation cities.

Regarding one of the biggest pending issues, the SRF combined heat and power plant problem, the city plans to actively cooperate with stakeholders and prepare legal and institutional improvement measures under a firm stance of "guaranteeing citizens' health rights and environmental rights."

Before the kick-off ceremony, Mayor Kang In-gyu visited the National Assembly member, chairman of the city council, provincial and city council members, education superintendent, and heads of institutions and organizations to pay respects at the Memorial Tower and Jeongryeolsa Shrine.

In his New Year's address, Mayor Kang said, "We will do our best to serve as a strong support to protect citizens' lives by prioritizing citizen safety and recovery of livelihood economy vitality," and added, "Together with about 1,000 public officials, we will devote all our efforts to promoting pending projects to build Naju as the center of Honam and the energy capital in line with the era of change where central and local governments are newly launched."

Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong bong2910@asiae.co.kr

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