Did Im Taek, Mayor of Gwangju Dong-gu, Succeed in Leadership? "Transforming into a City Where People Want to Live"

Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, is making every effort to enhance the unique brand value of Dong-gu through continuous change and development following the launch of the 8th term, succeeding the 7th term of the elected administration.

Although it experienced a long period of stagnation due to the past phenomenon of downtown hollowing, efforts over the past five years to restore its former glory as the "No. 1 place in Honam" have been successful in transforming it into a "city where people want to live and visit."

This is because major priority projects, which have been actively promoted since the launch of the 8th term based on the achievements of the past four years of the 7th term, are gaining momentum and producing visible results.

Examples include ▲ the 10 billion KRW-scale "Chungjang Commercial District Renaissance Project," ▲ annual promotion of the goal to foster the "Three Major Tourism Axes of Dong-gu," ▲ creation of an AI-based healthcare industry ecosystem, and ▲ the "Humanities City" initiative to increase residents' happiness index.

The most symbolic change and achievement is that among the five autonomous districts of Gwangju, Dong-gu's population has been steadily increasing.

Despite the ongoing population outflow in the Honam region, Dong-gu has ranked among the top nationwide in net population inflow over the past three years.

These statistics are analyzed to reflect that since the launch of the 7th and 8th terms, active urban regeneration and redevelopment projects centered on the old downtown, along with improvements in residential conditions, have contributed to recovering the population from a low of about 94,000 to 100,000 as of September 2020, and currently increasing to approximately 106,000.

The total fertility rate in Dong-gu is 0.99, which is the highest among Gwangju's autonomous districts, compared to the Gwangju average of 0.90.

Instead of unilateral, government-led desk administration, Dong-gu has pursued a "communication administration" through public-private cooperation that everyone can empathize with, resulting in substantial achievements across various fields.

Over the past five years, Dong-gu has achieved a record 188 awards and secured a record budget of 252.3 billion KRW.

In October last year, it received the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award at the 14th Dasan Mokmin Awards, the only one in the Honam region, and achieved the highest grade "SA rating" for four consecutive years in the "Evaluation of Elected Heads of Basic Local Governments' Manifesto Implementation Plans for the 8th Term," hosted by the Korea Manifesto Practice Headquarters.

With the launch of the 8th term, Dong-gu presented six core keywords for district administration: "Vitality," "Warmth," "Charm," "Coexistence," "Safety," and "Humanities."

Based on these, Dong-gu is accelerating the implementation of 48 projects across six major areas: ▲ vibrant economic city, ▲ hopeful autonomous city with a future, ▲ stay-type cultural tourism city, ▲ low-carbon eco-friendly ecological city, ▲ safe and healthy city, and ▲ people-centered humanities city.

Among these, the 10 billion KRW-scale "Chungjang Commercial District Renaissance Project" has entered its second year this year, enhancing the competitiveness of the Chungjang-ro commercial district and merchants through the creation of specialized streets by commercial district, fostering anchor stores, and hosting the seasonal Laon Festa throughout the year.

Recently, the "Laon Festa," held in spring across Chungjang-ro and the underground shopping areas of Chunggeum and Geumnam-ro, attracted about 13,000 visitors and generated sales of over 200 million KRW, significantly contributing to revitalizing the local economy.

It is planned to be held in accordance with seasonal concepts in summer, autumn (linked with the Chungjang Festival), and winter.

Additionally, by fostering the "Three Major Tourism Axes of Dong-gu" ? the National Asia Culture Center area, Mudeungsan National Park area, and Jisan Amusement Park area ? the strategy is to establish Dong-gu as a differentiated downtown night tourism city rich in sights and attractions compared to other regions.

While efforts have been focused on creating a "city where people want to live," the 8th term aims to concentrate on building a "city where people want to visit."

In line with this, Dong-gu has already embarked on strategic steps to become an attractive "stay-type cultural tourism city."

Dongmyeong-dong's "Traveler's ZIP (Jip)," which celebrated its first anniversary this year, serves as a tourist information center and a complex exhibition space, offering experiential tourism packages called "Emotional Tourism," allowing visitors to experience various Dong-gu tourism courses such as the Dong-gu Travel Type Test (ZPTI).

Visitors can enjoy "living tourism," staying for 3 nights and 4 days to live like locals, and this year, as part of human rights tourism themed on the movie "Taxi Driver," the "Running Again, Taxi Driver" service operated for a month, attracting a cumulative total of about 16,000 visitors.

Also, the "Stay-type Tourism City Tour" and "Moonlight City Tour," now in their third year, have started full operations, aiming to attract tourists from Seoul, the metropolitan area, and Daegu.

Alongside this, Dong-gu is putting full effort into creating an "AI-based healthcare industry ecosystem" as a new future growth engine in response to rapid changes in modern society.

The first and second phases of the project have been completed, and recently, memorandums of understanding were signed with Chonnam National University, Chosun University Hospital, and the Korea Micro Medical Robot Research Institute Healthcare Center to promote mutual cooperation.

The third phase, scheduled to be carried out by 2026, will focus on "nurturing AI startups based on a healthcare big data platform," accelerating AI startup commercialization, developing AI healthcare product services, and supporting one-stop integrated solution companies.

Unlike other autonomous districts in Gwangju, Dong-gu has distinguished itself by promoting the "Humanities City" concept for five years, gaining attention for various humanities projects aimed at spreading humanities spirit in daily life.

Meaningful achievements include actively encouraging resident participation through initiatives such as "Reading Dong-gu," "Humanities University," and "Life Publishing Project," along with the opening of the Dong-gu Humanities School and being selected as the sixth host city for the nationwide touring event "Korea Regional Book Fair."

Recently, the first Mudeungsan Humanities Festival "Humanities For:rest" attracted about 20,000 visitors during the event period, showcasing high-quality humanities content and enhancing Dong-gu's status as a humanities city.

Im Taek, Mayor of Dong-gu, said, "Throughout the 7th and 8th terms, we have consistently prioritized residents' convenience, happiness, and safety, striving to create a 'neighborly village, warm and happy Dong-gu' filled with affection among neighbors," adding, "In the remaining three years, we will diligently promote priority projects based on various achievements to create a 'city where people want to live, a city where people want to stay,' and a 'stay-type cultural tourism city.'"

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