On the 14th, Jung-gu District Mayor Kim Gil-seong held an awards ceremony to award the best proposal in the 2024 Policy Idea Contest. 145 policy proposals were received from residents and district office staff in this contest, and 25 excellent ideas with the potential to improve community life were selected. These proposals will be actively considered for implementation within the administrative plan of the district.

[Korean Today] 2024 Policy Idea Contest Awards Ceremony, Outstanding Proposal Award © Reporter Seung-Joo Ji

On August 14, Jung-gu, Seoul held an award ceremony to recognize excellent proposals in the 2024 Policy Idea Contest. The contest, which ran from April 25 to June 5, solicited policy proposals from residents and district office staff under the theme of “Where to live, where to stay, Jung-gu.” Of the 145 submissions, 25 were selected as winners.

The competition aimed to collect ideas that could solve various problems in the community, such as young workers, single-person households, and the aging population. The selected proposals included areas such as affordable living methods for single-person households, innovative ways to attract new residents, and proposals for creating a cleaner and safer urban environment. These proposals were divided into six main categories, from improving the daily lives of residents to business innovations to reduce costs and streamline operations.

In the resident proposal category, a total of 19 proposals were selected, including 1 grand prize, 3 excellent proposals, 5 excellent proposals, and 10 effort awards. In the employee proposal category, 6 proposals were selected, including 1 grand prize, 2 excellent awards, and 3 excellent awards.

The resident award went to Mr. Kim Hu-nam, who proposed ‘Realizing Senior-Centered Communication Administration’. His idea focused on utilizing the skills of highly educated, low-income seniors to support language and living settlement services for immigrant families, especially women and children from multicultural backgrounds. This proposal was well-received because it addressed both social integration and employment issues.

In the resident category, another notable proposal is ‘Welcome Jung-gu, Welcome Kit’ by Seung-hee Ha, which aims to provide essential living information and a welcome kit to single-person households who have newly moved to the area. ‘Military service support for new members of society’ by Dong-hyun Kim and ‘Jung-gu Traditional Market Exclusive Gifticon’ by Ji-young Kwon were also selected as the best proposals.

Students from Dongguk University’s Department of Political Science and Diplomacy also came up with creative ideas, such as a plan to relieve congestion in Chungmuro Printing Alley and a project to create a ‘community garden’ where residents can connect with nature and each other. The Excellence Award went to Cho Bo-kyung, who came up with the idea of building a complex cultural space for young people and single-person households. Other winning proposals included a financial education program and a plan to promote health for the elderly.

The best employee suggestion award went to ‘Introducing an electronic fingerprint scanner at the community center’, which could dramatically improve administrative efficiency. Other winning ideas included a system to monitor charging stations and a plan to change the call waiting sound at the district office.

At the awards ceremony, Mayor Kim Gil-seong expressed his gratitude for the passion and dedication of the contributors to improving local governance. He presented the winners with trophies and prize money, with the grand prize winner receiving 1 million won and the grand prize and excellence winners receiving smaller prize money. Mayor Kim promised to actively reflect these innovative ideas in next year’s administrative policies so that the best proposals can lead to real changes in Jung-gu.

Participant Ha Seung-hee, who received the Excellent Proposal Award, said, “At first, I submitted the idea with the hope that my opinion would be reflected, but now that I see the district office’s efforts to reflect our idea in the policy, I am so grateful and thankful. I feel relieved.”

The district office plans to review the selected proposals and reflect them in future policy implementation to establish the future direction of development for Jung-gu.

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