Gwangju City Selects 21 Participatory Budget Projects for Next Year

Runway-Style Crosswalks, Moving Expense Support for Youth, and More
Final Decision to Be Made in December After City Council Review

Gwangju City Hall exterior view.

Twenty-one projects, including the installation of runway-style crosswalks for pedestrian safety, color guidance line painting at the Gwangju Station Yukgeori intersection, and moving expense support for young people, have been selected as Gwangju City's "Participatory Budget Projects" for next year.

On the morning of September 23, Gwangju City held a general assembly at the Mudeung Hall in City Hall to select the "2026 Participatory Budget Projects," with over 100 participants including members of the Participatory Budget Committee.

The Gwangju Participatory Budget proposal process received 91 submissions between March 25 and April 30. These proposals underwent feasibility reviews by relevant departments (May-June) and deliberations by the Participatory Budget Committee (July-August), resulting in 21 projects being put forward at the general assembly. At the assembly, all 21 projects were finalized through a vote.

The selected proposals in the categories of municipal participation and youth participation include: installation of runway-style crosswalks for pedestrian safety (50 million won), color guidance line painting at the Gwangju Station Yukgeori intersection (50 million won), creation of a rest area at Wolsan Neighborhood Park (200 million won), and moving expense support for young people (500 million won), among a total of 21 projects.

The projects selected at the assembly will undergo a comprehensive review, taking into account Gwangju City's fiscal situation and the urgency of each project, to determine whether they will be included in the budget. After deliberation by the Gwangju City Council, the final decision will be made in December. The results will be available on the Gwangju City Participatory Budget website and the Resident e-Participation System.

At the same assembly, the city also announced three outstanding projects completed last year. In a selection vote held from April 4 to 11 on "GwangjuON," the city's online civic communication platform, 5,248 citizens participated. The top three projects by vote were: installation of sidewalks for pedestrian safety (34.6%), installation of child safety guardrails in areas with many private academies (25.3%), and management of street tree fruits (24.3%). These were recognized as outstanding projects and will be awarded at the "Empathy Forum" scheduled for the end of this year.

Ko Gwangwan, Deputy Mayor for Administrative Affairs, stated, "Since citizens propose projects through the participatory budget and the committee carefully reviews and selects them, we will make sure to monitor them closely and implement them effectively with strong administrative support. We hope citizens will continue to show great interest not only in budget formulation but also in budget execution and monitoring of project progress."

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