Gwangju City Holds Policy Meeting on 'Citizen Participation Allowance'

A policy meeting was held to promote the 'Citizen Participation Allowance,' one of the 'Gwangju-type 3 Major Public Interest Value Allowances,' a core pledge of Gwangju City's 8th term of elected administration.

On the 24th, Gwangju Metropolitan City held the 'Citizen Participation Allowance Policy Meeting' at the Happiness Conference Room on the first floor of City Hall, attended by related parties involved in the system design and opinion gathering process, including the Gwangju Institute, participation income experts, city council members, and public interest activity organizations and institutions.

The meeting was organized to share the progress of the introduction of the Citizen Participation Allowance system and future promotion plans.

The 'Citizen Participation Allowance' is one of the 'Gwangju-type 3 Major Public Interest Values (Farmer Public Interest, Citizen Participation, Household)' allowances, a representative pledge of Mayor Kang Gi-jeong of Gwangju City’s 8th term. It is a system that recognizes the value of activities of citizens who voluntarily engage in public interest activities for the benefit of the Gwangju community and provides them with allowances.

To introduce the Citizen Participation Allowance system, Gwangju City operated advisory meetings and planning teams from October last year to August this year and enacted the payment ordinance in August.

At the policy meeting, attendees agreed that the Citizen Participation Allowance system should be open to all citizens and should reward public interest activities aimed at solving social problems and enhancing the benefits of the Gwangju community. The fields of public interest activities were set to nine areas specified in the ordinance: public safety, promotion of rights for vulnerable groups, Gwangju community, climate crisis response, village activities, and others.

Gwangju City plans to establish the unique identity of the Citizen Participation Allowance that promotes changes in civic awareness and citizen participation, while building a platform-based public interest activity execution and verification system and a point accumulation type reward system to enable many citizens to participate easily and operate the system sustainably.

Participants in the meeting said, "A Citizen Participation Allowance Committee should be formed as soon as possible to accelerate the introduction of the system," and "We agree on the importance of the platform to improve citizen accessibility, and platform construction must come first to promote the pilot project."

Considering the difficult financial situation and consensus-building in 2024, Gwangju City plans to apply for a national funding project next year to build the platform and promote the pilot project in the second half of the year.

Jeon Young-bok, Director of the Gwangju Strategic Promotion Team, said, "The purpose and direction of introducing the Citizen Participation Allowance system are clear," adding, "We will lower the barriers to public interest activities, spread a culture of citizen participation, and through this, create a city of participation opportunities in Gwangju where my participation is respected."

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