Pohang Mayor Lee Gang-deok's Focus for Next Year: "Pohang as the Hub of the East Sea Soaring to the World"

‘Safety, Economy, Environment, Culture, and Welfare’ Key Administrative Directions Presented in the Policy Speech

‘East Coast Balanced Development Hub City,’ Accelerating the Foundation for a Sustainable Future Century in Pohang

Mayor Lee Gang-deok of Pohang is explaining the direction of city administration for the next year through a city administration speech at the 301st regular session of the Pohang City Council on the 8th.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Dong-guk] On the 8th, Mayor Lee Kang-deok of Pohang emphasized in his policy speech at the 301st regular session of the Pohang City Council that, as the direction for next year’s city administration, “To build Pohang as the central city of the East Sea region leaping into the world, we will focus our administrative capabilities on five areas: safety, economy, environment, culture, and welfare, and together with the citizens, lay the foundation for a sustainable Pohang for the next hundred years.”

Mayor Lee first expressed gratitude, saying, “Despite difficult conditions this year such as the resurgence of COVID-19, drought, and Typhoon Hin Nam No, thanks to the courage and efforts of our citizens, the projects we have been pursuing have yielded good results.” He pledged, “In the fourth year of the 8th elected term, together with the City Council, we will listen to public opinion and do our best with about 2,000 public officials to create a Pohang where everyone wants to live.”

The mayor explained the achievements, stating, “This year, the three new industries that Pohang has focused on?secondary batteries, bio, and hydrogen?are taking concrete shape, and the city is transforming into a green ecological space through the regeneration of the old downtown via culture and the expansion of greenways.” He added, “Next year, we will thoroughly respond to global changes to secure sustainable growth momentum, and make Pohang a safe and livable city, an eco-friendly city in harmony with nature, and a cultural city where citizens enjoy life.”

Mayor Lee presented the 2023 city administration directions for building “Pohang, the central city of the East Sea region leaping into the world” as follows: ▲Safety: “Safe City Pohang,” prioritizing citizens’ safety and health; ▲Economy: securing “unwavering competitiveness” through expansion of new growth industries and focused support for SMEs and small business owners; ▲Environment: creating a “people-centered eco-friendly city” with a pleasant environment and convenient living conditions; ▲Culture: a “culture and tourism-friendly city” full of unique attractions and happiness; ▲Welfare: “sharing and coexistence welfare” where all generations are happy together, focusing on these five areas.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok of Pohang, who vows to focus next year's city administration direction on building Pohang as a hub city of the East Sea, leaping onto the world stage.

To prioritize protecting citizens’ safety and health and build a “Safe City Pohang,” the city decided to implement a comprehensive safety city plan with three major strategies.

They will conduct a safety city comprehensive plan study with experts, and for local rivers severely damaged by typhoons, promptly carry out improvement and restoration projects by investing 171.6 billion KRW of national and provincial funds. They will also focus on flood prevention management projects such as improving rainwater pump station functions, maintaining national rivers, and constructing the Hangsa Dam.

Large-scale disaster prevention infrastructure such as large drainage tunnels or cutoff walls that can fundamentally prevent urban flooding are essential projects for future generations, so they plan to steadily promote them from now on.

Next, the city plans to secure “unwavering competitiveness” by expanding new growth industries and providing focused support to SMEs and small business owners.

The city aims to attract a total investment of 10 trillion KRW from 50 companies during the term. In the secondary battery industry, it will establish itself as a global battery hub city through designation of specialized complexes. It will also actively invest in the bio-health industry by supporting the establishment of a research-oriented medical school at POSTECH, new drug development, and commercialization of vaccine technology.

Furthermore, they will successfully promote the hydrogen fuel cell power generation cluster and hydrogen city projects to become the standard of Korea’s hydrogen economy. They plan to expand new opportunities for the city’s future based on fusion and innovation technologies including graphene, next-generation robots, AI, and quantum technology.

They added that they will devote full efforts to follow-up projects in industrial crisis preemptive response areas to help typhoon-affected companies gain better competitiveness.

To create a “people-centered eco-friendly city,” they plan to build a green pedestrian network connecting the entire downtown by creating forest paths along Posco-daero and Hope-daero. They will complete the Haksancheon restoration project without delay to generate synergy in old downtown development and accelerate ecological restoration of the four major rivers.

Along with this, they will innovate transportation infrastructure through attracting the high-speed rail to Suseo, expanding Pohang Station parking lots, and widening National Road No. 31. They also plan to promptly complete the redevelopment project of the old Pohang Station railway site and the Heunghae special regeneration project.

To foster “Pohang’s unique marine resources and harmonious tourism industry,” they will install an international convention center, a luxury hotel, and a marine cable car to transform Pohang into the nation’s top urban marine tourism destination. They also revealed plans to create a high-quality cultural city by operating the second branch of the municipal art museum, a base library, and a complex cultural and artistic experience hub.

Finally, to realize “welfare where all generations are happy together,” they plan to strengthen the emergency care system for infants and toddlers, establish a youth culture house in Nam-gu, build a senior complex community center and a multipurpose welfare center for workers, and enhance public health center functions to improve the quality of public medical services.

The city has prepared a budget of 2.6 trillion KRW for next year, a 2.6% increase compared to this year, marking the third consecutive year of a budget exceeding 2 trillion KRW.

Major priority projects to enrich citizens’ lives include allocating 46.7 billion KRW for citizen safety, 508.2 billion KRW for fostering new industries and revitalizing the livelihood economy, 644.1 billion KRW for creating an eco-friendly ecological city and convenient urban infrastructure, 114 billion KRW for tourism industry development and expanding culture and sports, and 887.8 billion KRW for seamless welfare realization.

Mayor Lee Kang-deok said, “Next year’s city administration will not only complete the projects pursued over the past eight years but will focus more on laying the foundation for a sustainable Pohang for the next hundred years.” He promised, “We will make Pohang a balanced development hub city on the East Coast to respond to the crisis of regional extinction and build Pohang, the central city of the East Sea region leaping into the world, together with our great citizens.”

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