"Realizing Social Value through Innovation" Ministry of the Interior and Safety Announces 25 Outstanding Organizations Including Incheon Facilities Corporation

Incheon Facilities Corporation Selected for Excellence in Establishing 'Citizen Participation Management Innovation Platform'... 1 Grand Prize, 4 Excellence Awards

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Local Public Enterprise Evaluation Institute announced on the 19th that they have selected 25 outstanding local public institutions that are realizing social value through innovation, awarding one grand prize and four excellence awards.

Incheon Facilities Corporation won the grand prize by establishing the ‘Citizen Participation Management Innovation Platform,’ while the excellence awards were given to Gumi Facilities Corporation, Seoul Metro, Taebaek Gadoksan Wind Power, and Sejong Special Self-Governing City Facilities Management Corporation.

The 25 outstanding local public institutions selected this year were chosen across five major innovation fields: social value-centered management (4 institutions), support for regional economic vitality (7 institutions), management innovation including proactive administration (6 institutions), strengthening participation and cooperation (5 institutions), and disaster safety management (3 institutions). The Ministry of the Interior and Safety explained that 165 public institutions submitted 491 projects for this outstanding innovation local public institution contest, and after rigorous evaluation, 25 outstanding local public institutions were selected.

Incheon Facilities Corporation, which won the grand prize, attracted significant attention by establishing and operating the citizen participation management innovation platform ‘Triple I (Triple Eye)’ suitable for the COVID-19 era. Incheon Facilities Corporation contributed to solving community problems by providing non-face-to-face services, creating healing spaces, and supporting psychological quarantine. Notably, it was the first to introduce an online memorial service system for family parks, presenting a new paradigm for Korea’s memorial culture, earning the grand prize.

Gumi Facilities Corporation declared the first social value brand among local public enterprises, ‘Gachi Plus? (Adding ‘value’ to ‘together’),’ during the pandemic caused by COVID-19, and actively promoted four major themed projects, receiving recognition for realizing responsible management of local public enterprises from the local community.

Seoul Metro introduced the establishment of a living logistics infrastructure utilizing railway facilities through the theme presentation ‘Seoul Subway Now Transports Not Only People but Also Goods.’ By developing an urban joint logistics platform project, it presented an innovative paradigm for freight transportation and attracted attention with a project that diversifies living logistics services by operating an online and offline logistics platform.

Taebaek Gadoksan Wind Power attracted attention as Korea’s first large-scale wind power resident participation model, creating a Taebaek Citizen Fund with part of the project cost to promote the project and completing equipment certification. By paying fund investment returns to residents, it contributed to improving household income and promoting carbon neutrality, realizing social value.

Sejong City Facilities Management Corporation has established and operates a safety accident prevention system based on vibration monitoring inside and outside underground structures using artificial intelligence. It collects real-time environmental data from underground utility tunnels, predicts and assesses risk situations through AI learning of the data, and provides risk alert services via a digital twin (3D virtual information system), earning an excellence award.

Professor Lee Yoon-seok of Keimyung University, who served as the head judge, evaluated, “Local public institutions are doing their best to share, spread, and realize social value by expanding public institutions’ non-face-to-face services, solving community problems, and supporting economic recovery even amid the COVID-19 pandemic.” Koo Bon-geun, Regional Economic Support Officer at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, “We plan to continuously discover and share innovative tasks of local public institutions so that the public can feel the effects, such as job creation in the public sector, support for regional economic recovery, and support for socially vulnerable groups.”