Seoul City Policy Made by Citizens... Recruiting Participants for Seoul Citizens' Assembly

Operation of 'Seoul Citizen Assembly' Where Citizens Directly Propose Policies ... Entering 3rd Year This Year
Citizens, Experts, and Officials Gather to Conduct Regional and Comprehensive Discussions

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 21st that it will publicly recruit citizen participants to join the '2022 Seoul Citizens' Assembly' until August 12. Applicants will be able to participate in discussions on selected agendas and express various policy proposals and opinions at the Seoul Citizens' Assembly.

This year, aiming for ‘Walking Together with the Vulnerable’ and ‘Enhancing Urban Competitiveness,’ discussion topics will be selected from major policy issues of the 8th Seoul Metropolitan Government, and diverse opinions from Seoul citizens will be gathered. Outstanding citizen proposals will be forwarded to relevant Seoul city departments to be utilized for supplementing and improving key projects of the 8th administration.

The discussion topics will be finalized in August after a preliminary survey of applicants, consultation with Seoul city departments, and expert advice. Through regional meetings and a comprehensive meeting, various opinions from citizens on the agendas will be collected.

This year, to gather diverse voices from the field tailored to regional characteristics and conditions, ‘regional meetings’ will be held to enhance the quality of policy proposals. At the ‘regional meetings (September to October),’ expert presentations, citizen discussions, and policy proposals related to the agendas will take place. After the regional meetings conclude, a ‘comprehensive meeting’ will be held in November to summarize citizen opinions, select and announce outstanding citizen proposals, and provide responses from relevant departments.

To ensure free participation for all citizens, there will be no limit on the number of participants recruited, and applications will be accepted continuously even after the regular recruitment period. Additionally, for citizen participants and the general public who cannot join discussions due to time or physical constraints, ‘pre-discussion’ and ‘supplementary discussion’ boards will be operated within the online public forum before and after meetings to allow anyone to participate in discussions.

Kim Mi-jung, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Citizen Participation Division, said, “We hope that through citizens’ participation and diverse policy proposals, a virtuous cycle will be created where policies needed by citizens are reflected in administration.”

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