Jinju-si Awarded the ‘President’s Award’ at the 2022 Korea City Awards

Achieved Overall 1st Place Among 229 Local Governments Nationwide, Recognized as the Best Local Government in the Country

Jinju City, Gyeongnam Province, won the Presidential Award at the 2022 Korea City Awards. Lee Won-jae, 1st Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, (right) Jo Gyu-il, Mayor of Jinju City

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] Jinju-si, Gyeongnam, achieved first place overall among 229 local governments nationwide in the ‘2022 Korea City Awards,’ hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which evaluates the sustainability of cities and the level of living infrastructure, earning the honor of receiving the ‘Presidential Award.’

The Korea City Awards is the most prestigious award given annually by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to local governments nationwide, recognizing outstanding achievements in efforts to improve urban spaces, citizens’ quality of life, and enhance urban competitiveness among 229 local governments.

The City Awards selects excellent local governments through a comprehensive evaluation of 11 items across four sectors (urban society, urban economy, urban environment, and support system) by an evaluation committee composed of experts in each field.

The first stage is a document review, where the four sectors including urban society are divided into basic and policy indicators for written evaluation. The second stage is an on-site evaluation, where two to three times the number of potential award-winning cities are selected based on the first stage document review, and evaluators and presenters participate together in meetings to assess. Subsequently, the city’s sustainability and living infrastructure levels are comprehensively reviewed and finalized through the evaluation committee’s deliberation.

Key aspects highly praised in Jinju-si’s city award evaluation include ▲preservation of beautiful natural environments and efforts to create living area parks utilizing natural environments such as Wolasan Mountain, Jinyang Lake, and Geumhoji Pond, as well as promotion of national and local gardens ▲excellent nighttime landscape policy projects such as creating a disused railway tunnel gallery, improving gateway area landscape lighting facilities, and replacing lighting for the old Dwi Byeori and Jinyang Bridge ▲various cultural projects including realizing zero waste, constructing the Namgang Riverside Multipurpose Cultural Center, building a southeastern district library, and creating a tourism-themed village in Jisumyeon ▲industry fostering centered on aviation, including attracting Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) to the Gasan General Industrial Complex and establishing the Gyeongnam Aviation National Industrial Complex ▲construction of bicycle circulation roads throughout Jinju-si and excellent bicycle use activation projects.

Additionally, ▲various policies such as supporting childbirth costs for women with disabilities to increase birth rates, the Young Plus project to resolve nutrition issues for pregnant women and infants, and support for maternal and newborn health care services ▲various after-school programs for elementary schools to address childcare and education gaps, and policy projects for the economic and social stability of multicultural families ▲efforts to reduce carbon emissions in response to climate change are also being implemented.

Mayor Jo Gyu-il said, “Winning the award for three consecutive years and receiving the Presidential Award this year is the result of all citizens’ best efforts toward the city administration goal of ‘Prosperous Jinju, Happy Citizens.’” He added, “We will continue to do our best to induce sound urban policies so that Jinju can be recognized as a city where everyone wants to live and as Korea’s top premium city.”

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