Geumcheon-gu Begins Construction of Large General Hospital

[Seoul District News] Geumcheon-gu Develops Specialized Medical Centers Including Cardiovascular, Gastroenterology, and Women’s Centers with 810 Beds from B5 to 18F... Eunpyeong-gu Provides Basic Training for New Public Officials...
Seodaemun-gu Supports Sister City Youth Futures through Mentoring... Dongdaemun Career Experience Support Center Increases Offline Programs and Expands ‘Yeongdeungpo Sseuda Jeombbang’ for Recycling and Waste Bag Exchange with Blended Education... Yangcheon-gu Leads Food Culture Improvement with ‘Ansim Sikdang’

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Geumcheon-gu (Mayor Yoo Seong-hoon) will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a large general hospital on the 9th at the site of 996 Siheung-dong in cooperation with the medical corporation Woojeong Medical Foundation.

The groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled to take place within the construction permit site, with about 290 residents including Geumcheon-gu Mayor Yoo Seong-hoon attending.

The general hospital will have 5 basement floors to 18 above-ground floors, a total floor area of 175,818㎡, and a total of 810 beds.

The main facilities include ▲basement floors 1 to 5 for parking lots and convenience facilities ▲above-ground floors 1 to 4 for outpatient clinics, examination rooms, and cultural spaces ▲floors 5 to 6 for operating rooms, intensive care units, research rooms, and sky gardens ▲floors 7 to 17 for inpatient wards ▲floor 18 as the rooftop floor.

Additionally, public open spaces and roads will be developed to improve the environment around Geumcheon-gu Office Station.

Geumcheon-gu plans to accelerate the construction project by starting construction in May with the goal of completion in January 2026.

Mayor Yoo Seong-hoon of Geumcheon-gu said, “Once the large general hospital is built, it will provide high-quality medical services not only to Geumcheon-gu residents but also to residents in the southwestern part of Seoul,” and added, “We will actively cooperate for the successful construction of the general hospital and the establishment of a solid medical infrastructure.”

Eunpyeong-gu (Mayor Kim Mi-kyung) conducted the ‘New Public Officials Basic Training’ in the first half of 2022.

In accordance with the Local Public Officials Act, the district promotes basic education on the necessary qualities and fundamental knowledge of practical work for newly appointed public officials.

The training was prepared to establish proper public service values and cultivate competencies for efficient work processing.

The previous training method had difficulties in delivering practical knowledge necessary for smooth work performance from the perspective of new public officials. Therefore, based on employee survey results, the district reorganized the training into a practical course utilizing internal staff as instructors to provide effective education for new officials.

The training participants were 84 newly appointed public officials since October last year. The training was conducted over two days for 18 hours via the online video conferencing program Zoom.

The main contents included education on integrity, cooperative governance, workplace etiquette, communication and collaboration practice through personality type diagnosis, understanding local governments, and practical training on laws, budgets, expenditures, and document preparation.

The ‘Basic Expenditure and e-Hojo Usage Training’ was directly prepared and lectured by the district office with easy-to-understand content tailored to new employees’ level, covering guidelines and procedures necessary for budget expenditure.

Experts from various fields participated as instructors, including Jo Jae-hak, a consulting committee member of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s Resident Participation Budget System Consulting Group; Park Do-yeon, a legal education officer from the Ministry of Government Legislation; and Kim Yong-gyun, an adjunct professor at the Gyeongsangnam-do Human Resources Development Institute, providing systematic professional education.

The district conducted a survey after the training to assess responses. According to the survey, most new employees found the practical contents such as e-Hojo usage and organizational adaptation beneficial.

Mayor Kim Mi-kyung of Eunpyeong-gu said, “This basic training was prepared to help new public officials perform various tasks and adapt to the organization. I hope it will be a good opportunity to cultivate proper public service awareness and practical skills,” and added, “I ask newly appointed public officials to work hard for the welfare of residents and the development of the district.”

Seodaemun-gu (Mayor Moon Seok-jin) announced on the 7th that it will promote online mentoring to assist domestic sister city youths in their studies and career exploration in cooperation with the foundation Together Sharing the World (Chairman Jung Chang-young).

Seodaemun-gu’s sister cities include six locations: Wanju-gun, Yeongdong-gun, Jeju-si, Mokpo-si, Asan-si, and Jangheung-gun. For the first semester, Jangheung-gun and Yeongdong-gun will participate.

A total of 30 participants, including 10 university students from Seoul and 10 youths each from Jangheung-gun and Yeongdong-gun, will form teams of three (one university student mentor and two youth mentees) for mentoring activities.

Following a recent online launch event combined with self-introductions, the program will be conducted over five sessions during the semester, including ▲Birkman career aptitude test and sharing life experiences ▲setting life goals and researching desired occupations ▲learning study methods and experiences from mentors ▲listening to experiences of professionals and senior majors ▲writing a dream declaration.

These sessions will be held online via video conferencing platforms, each lasting about three hours in a non-face-to-face format.

Separately, the district plans a 1-night, 2-day face-to-face program for university visits, job exploration, and arts and cultural experiences within the region. The ‘Sister City Youth Online Mentoring’ program will also continue in the second semester.

Mayor Moon Seok-jin of Seodaemun-gu said, “I hope this project, which helps youths concretize their dreams and goals, will develop into a new exchange model between sister cities in the post-COVID-19 era.”

Dongdaemun-gu (Mayor Yoo Deok-yeol) has launched various programs through the Dongdaemun Career and Job Experience Support Center (hereafter Dongdaemun Warak) to fully support local youths’ career and job experience activities with the start of the new semester.

Dongdaemun Warak plans to increase the proportion of offline programs compared to the previous year to address the deepening educational gap caused by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and provide quality education by implementing blended education combining online and offline methods for stable education delivery.

This year, a total of 18 educational fields will be offered, including ▲‘Campus Mentoring’ introducing university life and departments ▲‘Dream Bridge 7’ where professionals introduce occupations ▲‘Competency Discovery Program’ specialized for elementary students ▲‘JOB-gi’ for job experience and related career kit experience ▲‘Maker School’ fostering digital skills and entrepreneurial spirit.

To move away from simple theoretical education, the career experience kits currently provided will be subdivided by level to enhance learning effectiveness. For elementary students, kits featuring occupations that can attract their interest will be produced and distributed at an easy difficulty level. For middle school students, kits related to 4th industrial revolution occupations such as renewable energy experts and engineers will be provided to support step-by-step learning.

In particular, digital drawing devices newly installed in the center will enable new experience programs for emerging promising jobs such as webtoon artists and emoticon creators, offering diverse education to students.

A center official said they expect students’ creative and practical competencies to be strengthened as they create their own works using digital drawing devices.

Mayor Yoo Deok-yeol of Dongdaemun-gu said, “As COVID-19 continues for a long time, we will prioritize stable education delivery this year,” and added, “We will actively support the provision of diverse and effective educational programs to strengthen the capabilities of local students.”

Dongdaemun Warak operated 22 career experience education programs in five fields mainly targeting middle schools where the free semester system is implemented in 2021. Due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, it transitioned to online education and provided about 80 types of job experience kits to minimize the gap in face-to-face education.

Yangcheon-gu (Mayor Kim Soo-young) announced that it will expand the operation of ‘Safe Restaurants,’ currently operating at 170 locations, to 190 locations to foster a healthy food culture.

‘Safe Restaurants’ are dining establishments that improve our food culture vulnerable to infectious diseases, such as sharing a single bowl of food, and especially comply with COVID-19 quarantine rules so that consumers can use them with confidence. The designated targets are general and rest food service establishments providing regular meals; cafes and bakeries are excluded.

The designation requirements for Safe Restaurants include ▲providing serving utensils and plates for sharing ▲hygienic management of spoons and chopsticks ▲staff wearing masks ▲disinfection and ventilation ▲availability of handwashing facilities or hand sanitizers.

Newly designated ‘Safe Restaurants’ will be marked with a designation plaque to guide residents to use them with confidence. Additionally, they will be promoted through the district office website, map applications (Naver), and cooperation requests to government offices nationwide, providing various publicity effects. Hygiene supplies worth about 100,000 KRW per location will also be supported.

Applications are currently being accepted for 20 new locations to be added in the first half of the year, increasing from 170 to 190 locations. Interested businesses can inquire at the Health and Hygiene Division.

The district plans to select Safe Restaurants after on-site inspections of applicant businesses. However, quarterly on-site inspections will be conducted to check compliance with designation requirements, and failure to comply may result in cancellation of the Safe Restaurant designation.

A Health and Hygiene Division official urged, “We ask business owners to actively participate in the ‘Safe Restaurant’ system, which is a dining culture improvement system for safe and healthy dining culture creation.”

Yeongdeungpo-gu (Mayor Chae Hyun-il) announced that starting from the 7th, it will expand the ‘Yeongdeungpo Ssuda Jeombbang (Garbage Diet Store)’ that exchanges recyclable items such as transparent PET bottles and paper packs for volume-based waste bags to 17 neighborhoods.

‘Yeongdeungpo Ssuda Jeombbang’ aims to reduce the discharge of disposable items and recyclable household waste, which have surged due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, and to establish a resident-led resource circulation base through the activities of the resident council ‘Yeongjae Support Group (Yeongdeungpo Recycling Practice Support Group).’ It was piloted in two areas, Daerim 3-dong and Dangsan 2-dong, starting in March last year.

This year, the target areas will be expanded to 17 neighborhoods, with a total of 58 bases established, and full-scale operation will begin on April 7.

In particular, recyclable items eligible for exchange are specified, and separate exchange criteria are set so that when a certain number of waste items are brought, volume-based waste bags are provided.

The specific exchange criteria are ▲30 transparent PET bottles ▲50 paper packs (general and sterilized packs) ▲10 used batteries ▲15 plastic food delivery containers with one side longer than 20cm or ▲30 delivery containers smaller than 20cm, which can be exchanged for one 10L volume-based waste bag.

Furthermore, to encourage continuous participation in recycling, additional volume-based waste bags will be provided according to the number of times waste is discharged. Upon reaching a maximum of 24 discharge times, zero-waste products such as bamboo toothbrushes will be exchanged.

Ssuda Jeombbang operates every Thursday from 4 PM to 8 PM, with ‘Yeongjae Support Group’ members stationed at each base to check the condition and quantity of recyclables brought by residents and provide volume-based waste bags on-site.

Additionally, the collected recyclables are pre-sorted, and residents are guided on proper separation methods and the schedule for separating transparent PET bottles and waste vinyl, promoting a resident-led resource circulation culture.

From April to December last year, the pilot operation of Ssuda Jeombbang in two areas collected about 10 tons of recyclables and exchanged approximately 7,000 volume-based waste bags.

Meanwhile, the district is promoting key projects to revitalize resource recycling, such as ice pack reuse and Yeongdeungpo Ssuda Jeombbang, linked with the community innovation plan governance project this year as well. It is also operating a reusable cup sharing project centered on the main and annex buildings of the district office, striving to create a sustainable and systematic resource circulation city.

Mayor Chae Hyun-il of Yeongdeungpo-gu said, “Thanks to the high resident satisfaction with the pilot operation of Yeongdeungpo Ssuda Jeombbang last year, we have expanded the target areas and started operation this year,” and added, “We will continue to do our best to prepare various and effective measures for the establishment of proper waste separation and resource circulation culture.”

Due to the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, many parents are experiencing difficulties in educating their children and communicating with them as they spend more time at home.

Seongbuk-gu is holding a special lecture for parents titled ‘Overcoming Children’s Apathy through Emotional Coaching’ to help parents who are struggling with communication with their children in daily life.

Emotional coaching is a technique that helps individuals properly recognize their emotions and needs embedded in behavior and enables them to find what they want and act accordingly.

The goal of emotional coaching is not limited to simply understanding feelings or calming emotions but includes recognizing and regulating emotions independently and truly finding what one wants to change behavior.

In this special lecture, instructor Lee Jeong-hwa (Director of the Korea Child Psychology Coaching Center) will present a path to lead children’s proper motivation and sense of purpose using the somewhat unfamiliar method of emotional coaching.

The lecture will cover topics such as ▲proper motivation ▲questioning techniques that lead to behavior ▲creating an environment that allows children to change themselves ▲how parents can regulate their own emotions.

The special lecture for parents will be held live on YouTube for about two hours starting at 6:30 PM on April 14, and applications will be accepted until 6 PM on April 13 through the Seongbuk-gu Office website under ‘Recruitment Courses.’

A district official said, “We hope that the silent accumulation of difficulties in child education caused by children’s apathetic attitudes will be effectively resolved through this expert lecture.”

For more details, please contact the Education Support Division of Seongbuk-gu Office or the Seongbuk Youth Future Support Center.