Kim Kyung-ho, Gwangjin-gu Mayor, Receives Praise for "Good Work" and Makes a Fresh Start

Seoul Senior Official Kim Kyung-ho, Gwangjin District Mayor, Receives Positive Attention for Communicating with Residents, Implementing Organizational Innovation Personnel Changes, and Swift Supplementary Budget for Common People

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Kim Kyung-ho, Mayor of Gwangjin-gu (photo), is attracting attention for being evaluated as successfully starting the 8th term of the elected government.

Mayor Kim is a former high-ranking public official who passed the civil service exam and served as Director of the Urban Transportation Headquarters and Welfare Headquarters, and even held the position of Grade 1 Secretary-General of the City Council.

Since his inauguration, Mayor Kim has strengthened communication with residents, earning widespread praise from the community.

Moreover, he has carried out personnel appointments for district office employees in a stable manner, receiving positive evaluations from internal staff as well.

Along with this, Mayor Kim has shown efforts to support the livelihood of ordinary citizens who have suffered from high inflation by drafting a supplementary budget plan for the first time among Seoul’s autonomous districts. This has led to evaluations that “As expected from a capable public official who knows how to get things done, he is different.”

First, upon taking office, Mayor Kim declared himself to be the ‘Gwangjin-gu servant’ by operating ‘Meeting Days with the Mayor.’ On the 8th at 2:30 p.m., the first meeting with the mayor was held in the Gwangjin-gu Office Planning Situation Room, attended by about 10 residents and related officials. The open civil complaint office is held twice a week. On Wednesdays, a ‘Civil Complaint Handling Strategy Meeting’ is held, and on Fridays, it is operated as either ‘Meeting Day with the Mayor’ or ‘Civil Complaint Field Visit Day.’ On Fridays, the mayor meets residents who wish to meet him or visits related sites.

Residents who attended the meeting said, “We are grateful to the mayor for readily arranging such a meeting,” and “Regardless of the outcome, we felt very frustrated, but just having the mayor listen to our circumstances is appreciated.”

On the 12th, Mayor Kim also carried out promotions and transfers for directors and department heads. For example, Ji Young-soon, Head of the Planning and Budget Department, was promoted to Grade 4 and appointed as Administrative Director, among other personnel changes aimed at organizational change and innovation, receiving good evaluations. An employee of Gwangjin-gu Office, Mr. A, said, “This was the first personnel appointment after Mayor Kim’s inauguration, and it is interpreted as an intention to stabilize the organization overall while creating a working atmosphere,” adding, “It was possible because Mayor Kim had previously served as Deputy Mayor of Gwangjin-gu and was somewhat familiar with the executives.”

In addition, Mayor Kim attracted attention by drafting a budget to care for livelihoods ahead of other autonomous districts, aligning with Seoul City’s supplementary budget for accompanying the vulnerable.

Mayor Kim urgently drafted the 2022 2nd supplementary budget plan amounting to 5.9 billion KRW to respond to the difficult livelihood economy caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and international high inflation and high interest rates.

As Mayor Kim steps forward to help overcome the difficult situation of ordinary citizens, he is being evaluated as having a successful start. A resident of Gwangjin-gu, Mr. B, said, “Looking at what Mayor Kim, a former senior official of Seoul City, has done since his inauguration, he seems to have considerable political sense,” and highly praised him as “Indeed, Mayor Kim seems to be a ‘mayor who knows how to get things done.’”

The start of the 8th term of elected government for ‘Gwangjin-gu servant’ Mayor Kim Kyung-ho is being evaluated positively.

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