Kim Ikang, Mayor of Gwangju Seo-gu, 1st Anniversary: "Enhancing Resident Satisfaction through Communicative Administration"

Published 29 Jun.2023 14:02(KST)

"It has been a year of sincerely communicating with residents without formality and building trust in administration," said Kim Igang, Mayor of Seo-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, reflecting on his first anniversary in office on the 1st of next month.

Mayor Kim has set the vision for Seo-gu in the 8th local government term as ‘Together Seo-gu, Standing Tall Seo-gu’ and is leading the implementation of a government that is by the residents and close to their daily lives.

Kim Ikang, Mayor of Seo-gu, Gwangju [Photo by Seo-gu]

Above all, he is focusing on narrowing the gap between administration and residents through innovative communication methods. Right after his inauguration in August last year, Mayor Kim launched a direct phone line for the mayor called ‘Baro Munja Harangkke’ to listen directly to the voices of residents.

As of this month, a total of about 1,900 messages have been received. In particular, Mayor Kim sends responses within 48 hours regarding the results of complaint handling and future plans after departmental review of complaints and policy proposals received through this number, resulting in very high resident satisfaction.

Mayor Kim said, "The most fundamental aspect of district administration starts with being sensitive to the voices of residents." Following open field meetings held in the second half of last year where he toured 18 administrative neighborhoods and communicated directly with local staff, he conducted small group discussions for in-depth conversations with residents through the ‘Visiting Mayor’s Office by My Side’ program in the first half of this year.

Since Mayor Kim’s inauguration, three policies of Seo-gu have attracted attention from the government and other local governments.

The 18 administrative neighborhoods were divided into four hub neighborhoods and connected neighborhoods, and a BI (Brand Identity) reflecting the unique characteristics, culture, and history of each village was created, with village choirs formed through voluntary participation of residents.

Especially, the village branding strategy reflecting the BI was consecutively selected for central government projects, creating new momentum for regional development.

‘Yang 3-dong, a village of memories and arts radiating youth’ was recently selected for the Local Branding Activation Support Project at the living area level hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and ‘Geumho 1-dong, the Win-Win Village’ was selected as a target site for the Neighborhood Commercial Area Development Project hosted by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, receiving up to 10 billion KRW in support over five years.

Also, ‘Dongcheon-dong, the Dadok Dadok Book Village’ was selected as an executing institution for the 2023 Reading Academy public contest hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Mayor Kim emphasized, "The process of residents taking the lead in setting the village BI and expanding it into brands and projects itself completes village autonomy and will become a sustainable competitive advantage."

Mayor Kim’s administrative philosophy can be summed up as ‘small but certain happiness’ (So-hwak-haeng). Rather than large-scale SOC projects requiring huge budgets or vague regional development blueprints, he takes responsibility for the ‘small but certain happiness’ residents feel in their daily lives. He also has a special affection for the ‘certain happiness of small business owners.’

With the urgent belief that "there is no future for Seo-gu without revitalizing the alley economy," he is working to support small business owners and revive local commercial districts.

Right after his inauguration, Mayor Kim expanded special guarantee support funds for small business owners up to 3 billion KRW, and in March opened the Small Business Management Support Center, a comprehensive platform providing various information, education, and consulting services to small business owners.

Recently, he invited Kim Yushin, a dining industry consultant known as the ‘God of Business,’ to provide customized consulting for 40 small business owners aimed at stable sales growth.

The welfare policies led by Mayor Kim in Seo-gu have become a national benchmark.

Seo-gu established itself as a leading local government in integrated care by winning four awards in the regional welfare evaluation last year, and based on this achievement, Gwangju City has been implementing ‘Gwangju-style Integrated Care’ since April this year.

Seo-gu’s ‘Cheonwon Guksi’ project, launched as a senior job creation initiative, has sparked nationwide attention, opening a second branch in Pungam-dong following the first in Yang-dong.

Especially, the first branch in Yang-dong has revitalized the Yang-dong traditional market, and the second branch in Pungam-dong, featuring a sharing refrigerator, is becoming a new brand of Seo-gu by leveraging each location’s unique characteristics.

Personally fond of walking, Mayor Kim is also very interested in residents’ health.

In particular, the ‘Barefoot Road’ (Manbalo(路)) created in Sangmu Citizen’s Park, Sangmu 2-dong, and Geumho 2-dong has received great response as a healthy walking path for residents. Seo-gu plans to add ‘Barefoot Roads’ in Pungam-dong, Dongcheon-dong, Sangmu 1-dong, and Nongsung 1-dong this year and expand them to all 18 neighborhoods by the end of next year.

Mayor Kim said, "I will not lose my original intention to be a mayor who values residents’ happiness more than grand narratives and communicates closely with the field 24 hours a day as the mayor by my side who brings small but certain happiness. In the second year, based on solid trust, I will devote all efforts to building systems to realize a village-centered autonomous city, alley-centered economic city, people-centered welfare city, ecology-centered safe city, and happiness-centered cultural city."