Gwanak District, Korea's First Youth-Friendly City, Shares Know-How as the Youth Capital

Flood of Inquiries Following Korea’s First and Only Youth-Friendly City Designation in the Seoul Metropolitan Area...
Bi-Monthly Benchmarking Days Held
- Introduction of Outstanding Youth Policy Cases
- Facility Tours for Youth
- Sharing Know-How on Building a Youth-Friendly City

Gwanak District (District Mayor Park Junhee), which was officially designated as South Korea's first Youth-Friendly City in February, is drawing attention as a hub for the spread of youth policies, with other local governments across the country making frequent benchmarking inquiries.

The "Youth-Friendly City" system, designated by the Prime Minister under the Framework Act on Youth, was implemented for the first time this year after its legal basis was established in 2023. Local governments designated as Youth-Friendly Cities are tasked with fostering youth development and empowerment, creating environments that improve the quality of life for young people, and encouraging the spread of these efforts to other regions.

In its first year of implementation, the district was designated as a Youth-Friendly City and received a flood of benchmarking requests from other local governments. As a result, it designated the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month as "Benchmarking Days" and began responding systematically.

A district official stated, "In April alone, starting with Gunpo City in Gyeonggi Province, five local governments requested benchmarking, and we shared our district’s best practices in youth policy and know-how in establishing a Youth-Friendly City."

The Benchmarking Days, held at "Gwanak Youth Center," the core of Gwanak District's youth policy, include presentations on exemplary youth policy cases in Gwanak, sharing know-how on building a Youth-Friendly City, and facility tours. Afterward, the district holds Q&A sessions and shares information about local youth projects with visiting governments.

The Youth-Friendly City initiative is overseen by the Office for Government Policy Coordination, which selects up to three Youth-Friendly Cities each year from among 226 local governments and special metropolitan/provincial governments nationwide. In its first year of designation, Gwanak District was the only district in the Seoul metropolitan area to be selected, and it will receive a total budget of 1 billion KRW for Youth-Friendly City development over the five-year designation period.

In the second half of the year, the district plans to dramatically raise the profile of its city brand, "Gwanak, the Youth Capital of Korea," through youth-friendly city branding consulting. The district will further strengthen brand synergy and accelerate the realization of a truly youth-friendly city by installing mini promotional centers, producing promotional videos, and creating magazines and merchandise.

Park Junhee, the district mayor, stated, "The goal of Gwanak District’s youth policy is not competition, but 'diffusion.' Our district hopes that its pioneering youth policies will take root in other regions so that young people throughout Korea can live happily wherever they are. That is the youth-friendly city Gwanak District aspires to be."

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