Yun Byeongtae, Mayor of Naju City, "Will Make 2023 a Year to Leap as a Global Strong Small City"

[Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong] Yoon Byung-tae, mayor of Naju, Jeollanam-do, held a press conference in the city hall's main conference room on the 17th and stated, "The year 2023 will be the era of 5 million Naju tourism, sustainable rural areas, and future advanced industries leading the new energy industry. We will make Naju leap into a global small but strong city with a population of 200,000."

Yoon Byung-tae, Mayor of Naju City, Jeollanam-do, is holding a New Year's press conference in the main conference room of the city hall on the 17th.
[Photo by Naju City]

Mayor Yoon announced the seven major administrative directions for 2023, including ‘Tourism,’ ‘Agriculture and Rural Areas,’ ‘Future Advanced Industries,’ ‘Self-sufficiency’ and ‘Premium Education City,’ ‘Welfare Community,’ and ‘Properly Working Administration,’ as well as the three core strategies for Naju's great transformation: ‘Establishing a next-generation high-efficiency semiconductor ecosystem,’ ‘Youth package support,’ and ‘Community cooperation among institutions.’

First, Mayor Yoon said, "Through a 360 billion KRW region-customized integrated river project, we will secure flood safety of the Yeongsan River, improve water quality, and create waterfront cultural spaces such as an ecological national garden utilizing retention ponds." He added, "We will open a new era of the Yeongsan River through the 300-ri Yeongsan River bicycle path and the Soul Road along the Jiseokcheon riverside city."

He continued, "We will restore the aquatic ecosystem and create walking trails through the 93.6 billion KRW Najucheon ecological waterway project, and establish a tourism city base that people want to visit and stay by restoring Naju Eupseong, Naju Mokgwana, and Hyanggyo, and by opening Geumseongsan Mountain year-round."

He also mentioned plans to utilize Naju's unique historical and cultural resources, including attracting the National Mahan History and Culture Center, listing on the UNESCO World Heritage tentative list, and building the Namdo Uibyung History Museum.

Advocating sustainable agriculture and a returning rural community, Mayor Yoon proposed stable income guarantees through public interest direct payments, public interest allowances, and support for organic and inorganic fertilizers, as well as introducing seasonal workers and operating rural manpower support systems, and branding Naju pears and Naju dining tables as premium brands.

He also introduced rural revitalization policies such as the 28 billion KRW Noan Geuman Village ‘Rural Space Maintenance’ project, which includes large-scale demolition of livestock facilities, construction of rental housing for returnees to farming and rural areas, ‘Rural vacant house regeneration’ with a limit of 40 million KRW, and support for agricultural start-up costs and technical education.

Regarding the recently announced government policy supporting the ‘Food Tech’ industry, he stated, "We will form a Food Tech promotion team to attract alternative food research institutes and companies," expressing the intention to attract and revitalize nationally led agricultural and specialty product processing industries.

As the main directions for establishing a future advanced science city leading the new energy industry, he cited ‘Establishing a foundation for advanced industry through attracting ultra-high-power laser research facilities,’ ‘Rapid promotion of the 308.1 billion KRW Energy National Industrial Complex,’ and ‘Creating an industry-academia-research cluster linked with Korea Energy University.’

Among the three core strategies for Naju's great transformation, Mayor Yoon emphasized, "We will create a next-generation high-efficiency semiconductor ecosystem by leveraging strengths in renewable energy and RE100 fields." He added, "We will enact ordinances, form committees, conduct research projects in the first half of this year, and establish sustainable ecosystems for future generations through business agreements with KEPCO, KENTECH, and related companies."

Another core strategy presented the vision of ‘Attractive Naju where youth return’ through package support for youth housing, employment, and cultural activities.

Detailed projects include free rental of customized communal housing for single-person households and families relocating together, socialization funds for youth start-ups and second-generation family businesses, start-up education and consulting, subsidies for new corporate hires, operation of shared shuttle buses within industrial complexes, and youth cultural welfare cards (200,000 KRW annually).

He also promised a self-sufficient city full of pride by addressing the second relocation of public institutions in the innovation city, constructing a complex innovation center, and solving the three major issues in Bitgaram-dong (vacant stores, SRF combined heat and power plant, and odor).

Mayor Yoon explained, "We will proactively respond to the new government's national agenda of additional public institution relocations by forming a promotion committee and a task force and preparing differentiated attraction strategies." He added, "We will also actively promote the construction of the complex innovation center and the living SOC complex center."

Additionally, he shared plans to create a year-round flower garden on Bemaesan Mountain and a children's theme park in Bitgaram Lake Park to build a city where daily life is happy.

He did not omit universal educational welfare policies such as establishing a ‘Future Education Center’ to serve as a bridge between the local community and educational institutions, supporting experiential activities for first-year middle school students and out-of-school youths aged 13 with the ‘Dream Fulfillment Learning Card’ (100,000 KRW cash points), elementary school entrance support funds (100,000 KRW in local currency), and the first-ever lifelong learning voucher card in Jeollanam-do (150,000 KRW per person).

Mayor Yoon said, "In the 8th elected term, we will create a safe and happy welfare community for all," and "We will implement welfare policies that all citizens can fully enjoy."

To this end, plans include expanding support for ‘National and public daycare center conversions (2 locations),’ ‘24-hour childcare facilities (2 locations),’ ‘Accompanying personnel for school transportation vehicles at local children's centers,’ ‘Household care for pregnant women,’ ‘Naju-style infertility couple treatment expenses,’ ‘Beauty and hair care vouchers (increased quarterly from 12,000 KRW to 20,000 KRW),’ and ‘Temporary care services for people with developmental disabilities.’

Welfare policies that provide broad benefits to all ages and classes will also be promoted, such as distributing standing tables and chairs to 200 senior centers, applying heat-reflective paint on senior center rooftops (installing cool roofs), increasing housing purchase loan interest support for newlyweds (from 150,000 KRW to 200,000 KRW per month), and increasing the national merit veterans' honor allowance (from 50,000 KRW to 70,000 KRW).

He plans to accelerate the establishment of a convenient public transportation system for citizens and an odor management system for 24-hour odor monitoring without gaps.

Mayor Yoon said, "We plan to completely reorganize the public transportation system into an efficient one, including village buses and taxis operating in eup, myeon, dong, and natural villages, express buses operating major hubs such as Innovation City and Naju Station, and simplifying and increasing the frequency of routes between Naju and Gwangju, with operations starting in July this year."

He explained, "We will form an odor improvement task force to promote and manage reduction policies through interdepartmental cooperation, and establish an odor countermeasure committee to gather opinions from external experts. We will operate an odor integrated control center equipped with an odor measurement center and an integrated odor management system via a mobile app."

Finally, he pledged ‘forming an expert opinion gathering committee,’ ‘efficient budget management,’ and ‘personnel and organizational innovation’ for proactive administration and properly working governance.

Mayor Yoon said, "We will listen to expert opinions and reflect them in administration by forming advisory councils such as the Elderly Advisory Council, RE100 Energy Policy Advisory Committee, Power Semiconductor Promotion Committee, and the 5 Million Tourism Era Committee." He added, "We will efficiently manage the budget through the Budget Advisory Committee and create a vibrant organization where hardworking public officials are properly evaluated through personnel innovation."

Regarding the last pillar of the three core strategies, ‘Strengthening community cooperation with national and provincial institutions within the jurisdiction,’ he explained, "We will maximize synergy effects by operating a department responsibility system that designates dedicated departments for each institution to discover joint cooperation projects."

He expressed confidence, saying, "We will also play a significant bridging role on a grand scale to achieve economic integration between Gwangju and Jeonnam and to promote mutual development by utilizing adjacent resources such as the Yeongsan River and Hwangryong River Y-belt project and the Energy Valley."

Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong baekok@asiae.co.kr

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