This Year, Gwangju City Says Goodbye to the 'Familiar'... Pursuing Visible Changes

Honey Fun City and Artificial Intelligence: Drafting the Future of Gwangju

Complex Shopping Mall, Y Project, and Military Airport Relocation Plans Narrowed Down

The 8th term of the Gwangju Metropolitan City under civilian administration pursues ‘change.’ It aims for ‘breaking away from the familiar,’ leading to ‘visible change’ and ‘tangible change.’

According to Gwangju City on the 26th, this year was the year they completed the ‘blueprint’ to foresee Gwangju’s future.

Scene from the Gwangju-Daum Integrated Care Innovation Award Ceremony.
[Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City]

They designed and took the first steps toward projects such as the ‘Honey Fun City Gwangju Project’ to realize 30 million urban users, the ‘foundation for future food sources’ centered on future cars and artificial intelligence (AI) industries, the ‘establishment of groundwork for military airport relocation’ through special legislation, the ‘Gwangju-style integrated care implementation’ that changed the paradigm of welfare policies, the ‘practice of urban diplomacy and inclusive city’ to respond to the climate crisis and resolve poverty and inequality, and the ‘three major strategies of investment, infrastructure, and talent’ to complete the opportunity city with a high startup success rate.

Based on this, more practical major pending projects were selected, and budgets to be fully implemented from next year were secured.

Representative projects include the Yeongsangang 100-ri Road Y-Project, the development of Eodeungsan Tourist Complex, redevelopment of the former Jeonbang and Ilsin Textile sites, the creation of a 1 million-pyeong future car national industrial complex and a specialized materials-parts-equipment (SoBuJang) complex, the establishment of an AI cluster and Gwangju AI Gifted High School. Additionally, they are accelerating the three major strategies of ‘investment, infrastructure, and talent’ to complete the startup city, including Gwangju Station Startup Valley, turning the entire city into a demonstration testbed, and creating a 500 billion won startup innovation fund.

This was also confirmed in the ‘Top 10 Best Policies of the Year’ directly chosen by Gwangju citizens.

The best policy of 2023 selected by Gwangju citizens was ▲‘Gwangju-style Integrated Care,’ which won the highest award at the International Urban Innovation Awards. Gwangju-style Integrated Care was highly evaluated for its ‘universality’ where anyone can receive help, ‘collaboration’ achieved together with the local community, and the innovation of an alternative care system to solve urban problems.

Following were ▲rapid progress in redevelopment of the former Jeonbang and Ilsin Textile sites into a complex shopping mall ▲attracting a 1 million-pyeong future car national industrial complex and designation of a 2.2 million-pyeong autonomous vehicle SoBuJang specialized complex ▲the groundbreaking of the second phase of Urban Railway Line 2 ▲establishment of an AI data center and promotion of Gwangju AI Gifted High School to create a Korean AI innovation hub ▲supply of clear and clean tap water through reinforcement of aged water pipe maintenance ▲establishment of groundwork for military airport relocation through special legislation ▲strengthening care within 10 minutes in our neighborhood from a child’s birth to growth ▲support for the 50+ middle-aged generation preparing for their second act in life ▲and a waste-to-resource incineration plant contest, all policies with high citizen awareness and leading tangible changes in Gwangju.

This year, Gwangju also achieved results such as active drought response using citizens’ water-saving efforts and Yeongsangang water intake, alternative measures through Jisan IC exit, and permanent opening of Mudeungsan summit.

Urban diplomacy has also been further strengthened through sisterhood and friendship cooperation agreements with Nghe An Province in Vietnam and Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

As a result of these policy implementations, Gwangju demonstrated outstanding capabilities in various evaluations and received 48 awards this year.

‘Gwangju-style Integrated Care’ won the highest award at the world’s most prestigious ‘6th International Urban Innovation Awards.’ The highest award is given to only five policies among 330 excellent policies from 193 cities in 54 countries worldwide.

The ‘SoBuJang (materials-parts-equipment) specialized complex’ received the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Award at the 2023 Korea Job Awards, recognizing the excellence of job policies through the specialized complex. Gwangju created about 16,000 quality jobs by strengthening the competitiveness of the SoBuJang industry.

They received the Minister of Health and Welfare Award for revolutionary improvement of the regional emergency medical system, including the nation’s first public late-night children’s hospital operation. They also achieved great results in welfare policies spanning generations, such as being selected as an excellent local government in child policy implementation plan performance evaluation, government joint evaluation for creating a safe and high-quality child-rearing environment, the best award in elderly long-term care policy, and excellent local government in comprehensive youth policy evaluation.

Other notable achievements include joint first place among 17 metropolitan cities and provinces in the comprehensive public institution integrity evaluation, first place among metropolitan local governments in comprehensive civil service evaluation, highest grade for two consecutive years in the Board of Audit and Inspection’s internal audit activity evaluation, first place nationwide in waste treatment facility installation and operation management, first place among six metropolitan cities in public transportation policy evaluation, excellent institution in focused safety inspections, and excellent local government in government joint evaluation for summer natural disaster countermeasures.

Gwangju Mayor Kang Gi-jung said, “It was a year of overcoming crises, accumulating achievements, and opening opportunities,” adding, “This year, we drew the blueprint for ‘Future Gwangju,’ including the three-piece complex shopping mall set, Y-Project, and industrial structure transformation centered on future cars and artificial intelligence, and took the first step.”

He added, “Since the budget for major pending projects has also been secured, next year we will approach citizens with ‘tangible change.’”

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