Busan City Wins Grand Prize at Foreign Resident Support Best Practice Competition

Among 39 Excellent Cases Nationwide, 1st and 2nd Round Preliminary and Final Judging, Final Winners Decided on the 21st

On-site Interpretation Service at Public Medical Institutions Wins 'Grand Prize', Receives Special Grant of 100 Million Won

Busan City received the Grand Prize at the '2023 Local Government Foreign Resident Support Best Practice Competition' hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety for its 'On-site Interpretation Service Operation at Public Medical Institutions.'

Commemorative photo of the award ceremony for the 2023 Local Government Foreign Resident Support Best Practice Competition.

Among 39 best practice cases for foreign resident support submitted from 17 cities and provinces and 229 cities, counties, and districts nationwide, eight finalists were selected through the first expert review and the second online public voting. The final winners were decided at a competition held on the 21st at the Government Sejong Complex.

The city submitted the 'On-site Interpretation Service Operation at Public Medical Institutions' as a best practice case in this competition and won the Grand Prize. Accordingly, it will receive a special grant of 100 million KRW from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

The 'On-site Interpretation Service at Public Medical Institutions,' operated by the Busan Foreign Resident Support Center, a private consignment agency of Busan City, involves 66 foreign residents from 15 countries working as medical interpreters at Busan Medical Center. They provide support in six languages on different days from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The supported languages are Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, Filipino, English, and Korean. Busan’s on-site interpretation service allows foreign residents to receive interpretation support without prior reservation before visiting medical institutions, making it easier for them to access medical services.

In addition to the on-site interpretation service, the city also provides an accompaniment medical interpretation service by reservation.

This service supports 16 languages and started with interpretation support at six medical institutions in 2012. Currently, it is available at all medical institutions in the city.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun said, “The case of overcoming language barriers in the medical field, which is most needed by foreign residents, seems to have been a decisive factor in winning this award. We will strive to ensure that the approximately 75,000 foreign residents living in Busan can use medical institutions without inconvenience through Busan’s medical interpretation system and work to make Busan a city where both foreigners and locals want to live.”

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