Gwangju City Selects 17 Tasks for Innovation in Various Administrative Fields

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 2nd that 17 tasks, including the creation of an AI-centered city, were selected as excellent projects after evaluating the city administration innovations promoted in various fields this year.

This evaluation was conducted by reflecting the assessments of the Gwangju Innovation Promotion Committee, composed mainly of private innovation experts, the public-private innovation council review, a competition evaluated by citizens including university students, and opinions from the Gwangju Innovation Participation Group on 334 city administration innovation tasks across five major areas: focused innovation, government innovation, administrative innovation, collaboration enhancement, and innovation departments.

Among them, the following were selected as the best projects in each field: ▲ Realizing a sustainable Gwangju where every birth is respected ▲ Creating an AI-centered city, Gwangju ▲ Mobile safety care service for vulnerable households ▲ Sharing CCTV footage for illegal parking enforcement in autonomous districts.

First, in the focused innovation field, to realize a sustainable Gwangju where every birth is respected, the city established a detailed care system by introducing a basic childcare allowance, opening Together Care Centers and Complex Family Care Centers, expanding support for infertile couples, and building a 24-hour emergency care and integrated care information platform.

In the government innovation field, the creation of an AI-centered city, Gwangju, was advanced by establishing a supercomputer ranked within the world’s top 10 and a data center, thereby actively responding to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and presenting the direction for industrial innovation in South Korea.

In administrative innovation, the mobile safety care service received favorable evaluations. This service automatically checks call histories of wired and wireless phones for vulnerable groups such as elderly living alone and high-risk single-person households, and if there is no communication record for a certain period, safety is confirmed through visits.

Additionally, in the collaboration enhancement field, Gwangju City, autonomous districts, and telecommunications companies collaborated to connect 1,586 CCTV units installed for illegal parking enforcement to an integrated control center, also utilizing them for crime prevention. This initiative, “Sharing crime prevention footage from autonomous district illegal parking enforcement CCTVs,” saved over 5 billion KRW in budget and expanded safety infrastructure.

Five departments, including the Job Policy Office, were selected as this year’s innovation departments.

The Job Policy Office earned the honor of the best department by discovering and promoting innovative policies even amid the COVID-19 situation, such as the Gwangju-type job joint welfare program, systematic youth job platform establishment, and creating village enterprise win-win stores (#). The Autonomous Administration Division, Environmental Policy Division, Social Welfare Division, and Cultural City Policy Office were selected as excellent and encouraging departments.

Gwangju City plans to provide administrative and financial rewards for the selected excellent innovation projects and departments, including 31 personnel points, 13 commendations, and prize money totaling 18 million KRW.

Kim Yong-seung, the city’s Innovation Communication Planning Officer, said, “In an era of survival through innovation, innovation is the only way forward for Gwangju,” and added, “We will continue to foster a culture of cooperation and integration in city administration innovation to provide citizens with higher quality administrative services.”