Gim Haengja Gwangju City Council Preliminary Candidate Announces 'Better Citizen City' Policy

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] Kim Haeng-ja, a preliminary candidate for the Democratic Party of Korea for Gwangju City Council, announced her city council policy activities under the slogan of a “Better Citizen City.”

On the 13th, Candidate Kim presented six directions aimed at a better citizen city where citizens want and decide: “a city with reliable care,” “a vibrant village economy city,” “a 15-minute city enjoying urban infrastructure on foot,” “a sustainable ecological city,” “a cultural city where everyday life is fun,” and “a city of urban-rural exchange with urban agriculture and ecological gardens.”

Candidate Kim said she would expand city and district public daycare centers and kindergartens, prepare support measures for gap care to resolve blind spots in care time, promote the establishment of a high school in Hanam District, and build a public postpartum care center for non-children to create a city where our children and all citizens can enjoy “reliable care.”

She also stated that to create a Gwangju where alley shops grow together with neighbors and our children do not leave due to lack of good jobs, she would establish 10 shared parking lots in alley commercial areas and single-family residential areas and expand support, create stable senior jobs linked with local companies, and promote the maintenance of citizen-participatory linked bus routes related to the completion of Urban Railway Line 2 to cultivate a “vibrant village economy city.”

Furthermore, to make Bia, Cheomdan 1 and 2, Hanam, and Imgok into “15-minute cities enjoying urban infrastructure on foot,” she said she would enable residents to enjoy high-quality administrative services by linking Cheomdan Daesang Park, Yeongsangang River Trail, and Cheomdan Dullegil for pleasant walking in Cheomdan, promoting the relocation of the narrow Cheomdan 1-dong Resident Administrative Welfare Center, and providing parks with libraries, paintings, music, and performances.

Candidate Kim also promised to create a “sustainable ecological city” through support for installing solar power in our neighborhoods linked with citizen solar power plants, expanding climate crisis citizen education, and installing resource circulation collection centers (expanding the resident point system), emphasizing that only active citizen response in the era of the climate crisis can pass on a clean urban environment where our children can continuously live.

In addition, she emphasized creating a “cultural city where everyday life is fun” by preparing a complex cultural space through expansion and reconstruction of the narrow Cheomdan Library and supporting the activation of resident autonomy committees and resident communities, noting that the Cheomdan Library is the only cultural public facility available to residents in Bia and Cheomdan 1 and 2-dong, which have populations exceeding 80,000.

She also stated that areas such as Bia, Hanam, and Imgok need to transition into “urban-rural exchange cities with urban agriculture and ecological gardens” where good natural environments coexist with urban and rural life, and revealed plans to promote the Gwangju Metropolitan City Urban-Rural Exchange Center and “Garden of Wildfire” combined with urban agriculture and ecological gardens.

Candidate Kim pledged, “Through 26 years of genuine Cheomdan living experience, I understand the lives and wishes of local residents well,” and “I will become a city council member who keeps promises through meticulous pledge implementation based on listening and resident decisions.”

Born in Sinan, she graduated from Dongsin Girls’ High School and majored in history at Chonnam National University. She completed a master’s degree in Japanese studies and doctoral coursework at Chonnam National University and earned a master’s degree in policy studies at Chonnam National University Graduate School of Policy.

She later served as the chairwoman of the Democratic Party Gwangsan District Women’s Committee (4 years), a communication committee member of the Presidential Committee on Balanced National Development, and co-head of the Gwangju Metropolitan City Party Headquarters for the 20th presidential election.