Do You Know the Gyeongbuk Provincial Employees' Study Group 'Hwagong'? ... Special Lectures by Kim Dae-gi, Oh Se-jeong, Kim Young-hoon, and Woo Dong-gi

Woo Dong-gi, Chairman of the National Balanced Development Committee, giving the 201st 'Chemical Engineering' special lecture of Gyeongbuk Province.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Gu Daeseon] At 7 a.m. on the 3rd, although there were still two hours left before the working hours of public officials began, the Gyeongbuk Provincial Government Office building located in Andong, Gyeongbuk, was brightly lit.

Despite the severe cold weather of winter, the multipurpose hall on the first floor of the government office was filled with Gyeongbuk Provincial Government employees, and the atmosphere was lively. This was because the first ‘Hwagong Good Morning Special Lecture’ of the year was held.

‘Hwagong Good Morning Special Lecture’ (hereafter ‘Hwagong’), which means ‘Let’s study on Tuesday,’ is a study group for provincial government officials started by Governor Lee Cheol-woo of Gyeongbuk in November 2018 and is held every Tuesday morning.

Hwagong begins at 7:20 a.m. and the lecture lasts for 1 hour and 20 minutes, followed by a 10-minute Q&A session.

On December 27, the last Tuesday of last year, it surpassed 200 sessions and marked the historic 201st session.

On this day, Woo Dong-gi, Chairman of the National Balanced Development Committee, gave a lecture titled ‘Vision and Strategy for the Local Era of the Yoon Seok-yeol Government,’ discussing the government’s core tasks and directions for the local era.

He was specially invited as the first lecturer of the new year to share the government’s balanced development and local decentralization policies and to explore ways for Gyeongbuk to lead the local era.

This reflects a firm determination to make the Year of the Black Rabbit (Gyemyo Year) ‘the first year for Gyeongbuk to open the path to the local era of the Republic of Korea.’

The reason Hwagong has continued up to the 201st session is due to Governor Lee’s strong will.

First, this can be seen from the purpose of starting the special lectures. Lee, who took office as the 7th elected governor in July 2018, felt a sense of crisis that Gyeongbuk, facing difficulties such as population decline and economic recession, might die if it did not change.

Amid this crisis, he started Hwagong to find a way for Gyeongbuk’s survival with the motto, ‘Change to survive! The provincial government must change first! To change, we must study!’

At first, among the provincial government officials, there was a widespread opinion that ‘it will stop after a few months.’ However, as the governor attended without fail and actively asked questions to the lecturers, it soon became recognized as a regular study group and led to voluntary participation by employees.

There was also a crisis that the special lectures had to be suspended. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the lectures could not be held for three months from March to May 2020. As the pandemic continued, there were suggestions to stop the lectures, but they continued with the motto ‘We studied even during the war.’

Employees who could not attend the lecture hall due to the ‘social distancing guidelines’ were able to listen through the internal broadcast, and furthermore, real-time live streaming was started on Gyeongbuk Province’s YouTube channel ‘Boiso TV’ for related agency employees and residents.

Sometimes, due to the lecturer’s circumstances, the Tuesday lecture was held on Wednesday or Thursday.

So far, lectures have been given by Seoul National University President Oh Se-jeong, KAIST President Lee Kwang-hyung, POSTECH President Kim Moo-hwan, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute Director Park Won-seok, Korea Transport Institute Director Oh Jae-hak, Korea Institute for Robot Convergence Director Yeo Jun-gu, and Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade Director Jang Ji-sang. Special lectures were also given by EcoPro Chairman Lee Dong-chae, Harim Group Chairman Kim Hong-guk, Daesung Group Chairman Kim Young-hoon, Kolmar Korea Chairman Yoon Dong-han, Youngone Corporation Chairman Sung Ki-hak, and Nano Chairman Shin Dong-woo.

Kim Dae-gi, Chief of Staff to the President, also gave a special lecture on April 12 last year as a professor at Dankook University, during which President Yoon Seok-yeol reportedly learned about Hwagong. Former Minister of Education Lee Ju-ho also attended Hwagong.

Among the lecturers, there were quite a few foreigners. Joanna Donnerbart, the Dutch Ambassador to Korea, introduced the future agriculture of the Netherlands, an advanced agricultural country, and Zenichiro Okayama, a former professor at Tenri University in Japan and an expert on Silla, gave a lecture forecasting Korea-Japan relations through the historical relationship between Silla and Japan.

The ages of the lecturers also varied. The oldest lecturer was Kim Hyung-seok, Professor Emeritus at Yonsei University, who gave a lecture in November last year at the age of 103 (born in 1920), and the youngest lecturer was Jung Joon-seon, Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at KAIST, who gave a lecture in April last year at the age of 31 (born in 1992).

Hwagong has covered various topics such as the 4th Industrial Revolution, jobs and economy, culture and tourism, and the latest trends.

Specifically, lectures mainly focused on cutting-edge industries that the province is emphasizing or needs to pioneer, including integrated new airport, metaverse, artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, quantum technology, semiconductors, secondary batteries, nuclear power, graphene, hemp industry, bio-health, food tech, smart farms, urban air mobility (UAM), and robotics.

Governor Lee Cheol-woo of Gyeongbuk said, “If the first 200 sessions of Hwagong were a study group to reestablish Gyeongbuk as the center of the Republic of Korea, from the 201st session onward, it will be a forum for discovering and discussing policies necessary for Gyeongbuk to lead the local era and create a new Korea with Gyeongbuk’s strength.” He added, “To overcome the crisis of local areas, bold balanced development and local decentralization policies that can change the Seoul metropolitan area-centered system are necessary. Although many challenges lie ahead, like the ‘Black Rabbit’ of the Gyemyo Year, we will leap over and overcome them without rest.”

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