Gwangju City Takes Steps to Build Infrastructure for Seniors' Happy Retirement

5-Year Investment of 4.1494 Trillion KRW in 5 Areas Including Care and Human Rights

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Metropolitan City is embarking on building an age-friendly city infrastructure for the happy retirement of senior citizens.

On the 8th, Gwangju City held the ‘Age-Friendly City Creation Committee’ and announced the confirmation of the ‘2nd Five-Year Basic Plan for Age-Friendly City Creation.’

The Age-Friendly City Creation Committee consists of 14 members, including Chairman Moon Young-hoon, Deputy Mayor, city council members, experts from institutions and academia, and heads of related departments.

The 2nd basic plan aims for Gwangju City to be re-certified by the ‘World Health Organization (WHO) Age-Friendly Cities International Network.’

The committee received reports on the policy direction, vision, and major policies of the 2nd basic plan, which was established based on the comprehensive evaluation results of the 1st implementation plan carried out over the past three years, and discussed and deliberated on them.

With the vision of ‘Gwangju, a healthy and vibrant city with work and dignified life for tomorrow,’ a total of KRW 4.1494 trillion will be invested from this year until 2027 to promote 52 detailed tasks in five areas: ▲jobs ▲social participation ▲care and human rights ▲health and nursing ▲living environment.

Major tasks include supporting senior jobs and social activities, operating the Bitgoeul 50+ jobs program, establishing and operating the Bitgoeul Hyoryeong Senior Town, providing age-friendly public library services, offering customized care services for seniors, supporting long-term care services, and improving residential spaces in permanent rental apartments, aiming to create social and physical environments for the happy retirement of the elderly.

In particular, 14 new tasks will be promoted, including building smart care services, mobile healthcare, operating dementia patient support programs, operating shared housing for elderly living alone, discovering and nurturing generation-specific prospective entrepreneurs, operating lifelong learning job platforms, building smart crosswalks, and supporting the cultivation of Gwangju-style urban agriculture.

Furthermore, with the confirmation of the 2nd basic plan, Gwangju City expects to complete the application for re-certification (membership) to the World Health Organization (WHO) Age-Friendly Cities International Network within this month, and anticipates approval of membership in March.

Deputy Mayor Moon Young-hoon said, “With the development of medical technology, life expectancy is exceeding 100 years, and aging is an inevitable and natural process of urban development. We will do our best to ensure that our city can play a leading role in the global trend of changes in elderly policies.”

Meanwhile, the Age-Friendly Cities International Network is a project promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the international community to jointly respond to the global issues of aging and urbanization. It aims to create a city where “aging is not inconvenient and anyone can participate actively and healthily in society regardless of age.” Currently, 1,110 cities from 44 countries (33 cities domestically) are members.

Since receiving the ‘Age-Friendly City Membership Approval’ from the ‘World Health Organization (WHO) Age-Friendly Cities International Network’ in March 2020, Gwangju City has focused on enhancing age-friendliness as a member city.

In particular, by operating senior policy monitoring groups and regularly inspecting detailed projects in each area, the city has increased policy execution power in various ways, resulting in improved age-friendliness in all areas included in the 1st basic plan, such as jobs, social participation, and care welfare.

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