Ministry of the Interior and Safety Selects 11 Local Community Field Problem-Solving Projects... Residents, Companies, and Local Governments Join Forces to Solve Issues

Solving Local Issues with Digital Technology

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] A project that addresses local community issues faced by elderly living alone, women, foreign residents, and traditional market merchants through communication among residents, businesses, and local governments using digital technology will be actively promoted in 11 locations this year.

On the 27th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced that it has finalized the selection of 11 tasks to carry out this year’s 'Resident Participation and Digital-Based Local Community Field Problem Solving Project' in cooperation with the Korea Local Information Development Institute, and will begin full-scale implementation from June. This project involves direct participation and collaboration of local residents and private companies to create tangible changes centered on everyday life.

Since its inception in 2019, this project has supported the resolution of local community issues in a total of 21 locations, involving residents and key stakeholders throughout the entire problem-solving process, thereby creating changes that local residents can feel. In Busan Metropolitan City, through the participation of the education office, dental association, health teachers, students, and parents, a system was established to accumulate oral health information for elementary school students (150,000) and provide personalized oral health education videos and materials.

In Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, with the participation of parents and teachers of special schools, a service was developed to easily check the real-time location of school buses. This solved the inconvenience and anxiety caused by not knowing the exact location and estimated arrival time of school buses, benefiting about 250 students from three special schools in Jeju.

This year, customized resident services will be developed through cooperation among residents, private companies, and local governments across the country, including Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, Gangwon, Jeonnam, Gyeongnam, and Jeju. In Tongyeong City, Gyeongsangnam-do, private companies, Tongyeong City Hall, and local welfare centers will collaborate to provide care dolls for emotional support to elderly living alone at high risk of solitary death, and develop content in the local dialect through village resident participation.

In Busan Metropolitan City, to resolve communication issues faced by foreign residents, private companies, Busan City Hall, Busan Immigration Office, Busan International Exchange Foundation, and interpretation volunteers will cooperate. An application supporting interpretation consultations in 13 foreign languages will be built to provide mobile-based interpretation counseling, accompaniment interpretation, and real-time consultation chat.

Additionally, in Jeju City, private companies, Jeju City, and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province will collaborate to ensure the safety of female drivers. They will establish the Jeju Safe Parking Number using QR codes and an Automatic Response System (ARS), implementing it through communication with female drivers, women’s organizations, local community leaders, and rental car companies.

Ji Dae-beom, President of the Korea Local Information Development Institute, stated, “We will spare no support to solve local issues that residents can directly feel,” and added, “As a specialized local informatization institution, we will strive to strengthen the digital utilization capabilities of local community fields through our expertise and network.”

Park Seong-ho, Director of the Local Autonomy and Decentralization Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, “We will actively support the use of digital technology by local communities such as local companies and residents to solve everyday problems faced by relatively vulnerable groups in the community, including the elderly, women, foreigners, and traditional market merchants,” and added, “We will also actively support the sharing and expansion of the achievements created by local communities through this project to other regions.”