Yongsan-gu Starts Operation of Digital Notice and Promotion Boards... Gwanak-gu Invests 21 Billion Won in Public Cable Maintenance Over 5 Years

[Seoul District News] Yongsan-gu Comprehensive Administrative Town, Yongsan Station Plaza, Yongsan 2-ga-dong Resident Center with 8 total 55-inch displays... Screen magnification and voice guidance features installed... Gwanak-gu aims to maintain 6,825 communication lines and 375 km by 2026, achieving 65% of total volume... Guro-gu implements illegal advertisement collection reward system... Seocho-gu supports young cultural and artistic social economy enterprises

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Yongsan-gu (District Mayor Seong Jang-hyun) has installed digital bulletin boards at three key locations within the district, including the Yongsan-gu Comprehensive Administrative Town, and has officially begun their operation. This initiative aims to enhance resident satisfaction and administrative efficiency by integrating digital technology into district administration promotion.

From December last year to January this year, the district installed a total of eight digital bulletin boards across three locations: three screens at Yongsan-gu Comprehensive Administrative Town, four screens at Yongsan Station Plaza (around 421 Hangang-ro 2-ga), and one screen at Yongsan 2-ga-dong Community Service Center (90 Sinheung-ro). The project cost was 140 million KRW.

Each bulletin board consists of a 55-inch touchscreen per screen and a structure measuring 1m wide by 2m high. The operating hours for the bulletin boards at the Comprehensive Administrative Town and Yongsan 2-ga-dong Community Service Center are from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Considering the high foot traffic and public transportation schedules, the Yongsan Station Plaza bulletin boards operate from 6 a.m. to midnight.

The main functions are posting official notices and promoting district administration.

Among the three screens at the Comprehensive Administrative Town, one is dedicated to posting official notices, while the remaining seven screens are used for district promotion.

Previously, official notices were posted by printing paper documents. With the installation of digital bulletin boards, staff can now conveniently manage postings remotely. By setting the posting period, content can be automatically posted and deleted.

The other seven screens used for district promotion are also remotely managed and allow user interaction.

A district official stated, “Elderly residents or visually impaired individuals who had difficulty reading small print on notices will now be able to check the content more easily.”

Users can operate the touchscreen on the bulletin boards to directly enlarge notices, flip pages, and activate a read-aloud function. Selecting a notice enlarges the screen, and arrows on either side allow page turning. Pressing the ‘Read Aloud’ button at the bottom enables the document content to be heard via audio.

To prevent damage to the digital bulletin boards, CCTV cameras recording the screens 24/7 have been installed to aid in facility management.

Yongsan-gu Mayor Seong Jang-hyun said, “By utilizing fast and convenient digital technology, we can easily deliver various district news and lifestyle information to residents. We will continue to pursue administrative innovation by integrating digital technology.”

The district plans to add emergency notification services such as real-time disaster alerts and missing person searches through system updates. In the second half of this year, it will analyze user satisfaction with the operation results and consider expanding the installation of digital bulletin boards.

Gwanak-gu (District Mayor Park Jun-hee) has established a five-year plan for overhead cable maintenance, accelerating efforts to improve residents’ safety and urban aesthetics through environment improvements closely linked to daily life.

Gwanak-gu faces a situation requiring maintenance due to the continuous increase and disorderly proliferation of overhead cables caused by densely populated residential types such as one-room apartments and detached houses, as well as high population mobility from single-person and youth households.

Accordingly, the district has shifted from the existing annual maintenance plans and ad hoc maintenance methods to a systematic, phased maintenance plan to increase residents’ perceived effectiveness and ensure practical safety.

In addition, under the ‘Second Mid- to Long-term Comprehensive Plan for Overhead Cable Maintenance and Infrastructure Advancement,’ the district secured maintenance volumes covering the entire area through a defective overhead cable maintenance support project led by the Ministry of Science and ICT and will proceed with phased maintenance.

First, to establish the five-year plan, the district conducted a perception and satisfaction survey with 430 residents last year. The results showed that over 70% of residents agreed on expanding the overhead cable maintenance project, indicating a high demand for cable maintenance among local residents.

Furthermore, a field survey across Gwanak-gu identified 15 priority maintenance neighborhoods covering 40 sections and 21 ad hoc maintenance neighborhoods covering 40 sections. Maintenance will be carried out sequentially and in phases, starting with areas where cable aging and disorder are severe, to reduce disparities between regions and ensure balanced maintenance.

The total maintenance volume for this project, with a budget of 21 billion KRW, includes 6,825 cables and 375 km of lines for power and telecommunications. By the end of the five-year plan covering 21 neighborhoods in 2026, 65% of the total maintenance target is expected to be completed, significantly contributing to visible urban aesthetic improvements and practical quality of life enhancements for residents.

Additionally, a field promotion team for the cable maintenance project has been formed, consisting of resident representatives and community service center staff from each neighborhood. This team will facilitate resident cooperation, on-site support, and complaint resolution, establishing a cooperative governance system with local residents and exploring efficient public-private partnership methods.

Meanwhile, in 2021, the district received the highest rating in the Ministry of Science and ICT’s overhead cable maintenance project evaluation and was supported with 4.2 billion KRW for maintenance.

A district official said, “Based on the five-year overhead cable maintenance plan, we will do our best to carry out systematic and phased maintenance to dramatically improve urban aesthetics and enhance residents’ quality of life.”

Guro-gu (District Mayor Lee Sung) will implement a reward system for collecting illegal banners and floating advertisements.

On the 3rd, Guro-gu announced, “To create a pleasant urban landscape and ensure safe pedestrian environments, we will implement a reward system for collecting illegal banners and floating advertisements to eradicate illegal advertising.”

The reward system for illegal banners and floating advertisements compensates residents who remove illegal banners or floating advertisements after verification by the district office.

For illegal banner maintenance, Guro-gu recruited participants aged 20 to 64 within the district and selected eight people.

Inspectors remove banners and residual materials such as strings and tape posted on utility poles, street trees, or roadsides. If they submit before-and-after photos and the collected illegal banners to the district office, they receive a daily reward of 100,000 KRW, up to 3 million KRW per month.

Guro-gu also operates a reward system for collecting floating advertisements such as posters and leaflets. For this, 22 low-income seniors aged 65 or older in the district were recruited. If they submit collected posters, leaflets, and youth-harmful leaflets to their local community service center, they can receive up to 250,000 KRW per month in rewards.

A Guro-gu official said, “Through the reward system for collecting illegal advertisements, we can create clean streets and provide jobs to residents, achieving two benefits at once. We will do our best to establish a proper outdoor advertising culture and create pleasant streets.”

Last year, Guro-gu maintained 18,967 illegal banners and 1,154,949 floating advertisements.

Seocho-gu announced that it is recruiting participating teams for the ‘Social Economy Cultural Arts Youth Startup Support Project,’ which supports startups for young cultural and artistic talents struggling due to COVID-19, until the 18th of this month.

A ‘social economy enterprise’ is a business model that solves social problems with creative ideas, pursuing corporate profits, social value, and job creation simultaneously.

Based on rich cultural and artistic infrastructure such as the area around the Seoul Arts Center and Instrument Street, the district has been running this project since 2018 to assist young cultural and artistic entrepreneurs.

This year, the district will support a total of 23 teams with approximately 400 million KRW in district funds. The support areas include startup initial business expenses for 15 teams and rental fee support for business stabilization for 8 teams.

Notably, this year the district significantly increased support funds to promote financial independence among youth. Initial startup business expenses have doubled from a maximum of 10 million KRW per team to 20 million KRW, and rental fee support increased by 900,000 KRW from a maximum of 4.5 million KRW to 5.4 million KRW per team.

Additionally, the district has prepared capacity-building education for young cultural and artistic applicants facing difficulties in early startups. Key programs include ‘1:1 consulting’ matching experts in management and marketing, a ‘Capacity Building Academy’ offering courses on social economy enterprise establishment, certification acquisition, and investment proposal presentation skills, and ‘Networking Day’ where senior young entrepreneurs share know-how.

Over the past four years, the project has discovered a total of 65 social economy enterprises and provided jobs to 243 people, receiving strong support from young cultural and artistic talents.

Last year, the district supported 23 teams, created 41 new jobs, and 15 teams achieved increased sales. Separately, five teams secured investments totaling approximately 500 million KRW from various companies such as the Korea Communications Agency and Kakao Ventures, recognizing their growth potential.

The district expects this project to greatly contribute to developing creative revenue models in the cultural and artistic fields among youth and revitalizing the local cultural and artistic economy linked to the Seoul Arts Center and Instrument Street.

Applicants must be young people aged 19 to under 39 who reside or are active in the district and have a business item related to social economy enterprises in culture and arts, either as prospective or early-stage startup teams.

The district will conduct a first round of document screening by the end of this month, followed by a second round of presentations in March to select final support teams and will proceed with the project, including grant disbursement, until December this year.

Additionally, on the 8th, the district plans to open the ‘Seocho-gu Social Economy Integrated Support Center’ (located in Seocho-dong) to assist with startup consulting and market development for social economy enterprises. This center will focus on the ‘Corporate Linkage Platform Project’ connecting cultural and artistic youth social economy enterprises with large corporations.

The district will help cultural and artistic youth social economy enterprises generate revenue by receiving various jobs such as regular performances, exhibitions, and plant interior design from large corporations.

Acting District Mayor Cheon Jeong-wook said, “I hope this project provides an opportunity for cultural and artistic youth exhausted by COVID-19 to realize their dreams. We will continue to nurture Seocho-style young entrepreneurs in the cultural and artistic fields to contribute to community development.”

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