How to Fight Regional Extinction? ... Yeongju City Selects Winners of Customized Mega Project Idea Contest

Yeongju City Hall.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Gwi-yeol] Yeongju City in Gyeongbuk has concluded a national idea contest themed on ‘urban sustainability.’

Yeongju City announced on the 1st that it held an awards ceremony for the ‘Customized Mega Project Idea Contest’ conducted to realize ‘a city where children dream and Yeongju’s future is happy.’

Earlier, the city held the contest from March 21 to April 29, a 40-day period, aiming to discover new core projects to secure urban sustainability.

The ideas submitted through the national contest were evaluated based on five criteria (△Creativity △Effectiveness △Policy relevance △Specificity △Feasibility) through two rounds of judging and internal review, selecting a total of five winners: one grand prize, two excellence awards, and two encouragement awards.

The winning entries were △Grand Prize: ‘Yeongju Citizen Park Development Plan (Kim Kyung-jin, Anjeong-myeon, Yeongju City)’ △Excellence: ‘Come to Yeongju, where the era remains, for something new (Kim Hye-won, Dongjak-gu, Seoul)’ △Excellence: ‘Night Market Project for Revitalizing Tourism in Yeongju (Moon Ji-woo, Hyucheon-dong, Yeongju City)’ △Encouragement: ‘Local Insider Collective Intelligence Youth Platform: Ideas to Overcome Youth Population Decline (Lee Geon-wook, Cheongju City, Chungbuk)’ △Encouragement: ‘Yeongju Youth Prospective Farmers: Hae;boda (Lee Hyung-soo, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul).’

The grand prize-winning ‘Yeongju Citizen Park Development Plan’ proposed creating a ‘Connected Park’ centered on Seocheon, linking existing parks and facilities such as the Culture and Arts Center, Seocheon Riverside Road, and Bicycle Park with new facilities including Kkachikyo Bridge, Metaverse Center, Craft Exhibition Hall, and Specialty Product Sales Center. It suggested hosting various cultural events and weekend markets to establish a ‘downtown landmark for citizens’ where nature, culture, and economy converge, receiving high evaluations across all criteria.

On the day, the five winners received certificates and prize money: △Grand Prize 3 million KRW △Excellence 2 million KRW △Encouragement 1 million KRW.

The city plans to review the selected ideas with relevant departments, secure budgets, and establish detailed implementation plans before execution.

Lee Hang-gyu, Director of the Future Strategy Office, said, “We will actively respond to the crisis of local extinction by promoting the contest proposals as projects to secure regional sustainability. We will gather differentiated policy proposals through brilliant ideas and discover new large-scale projects to lead the construction of ‘Yeongju City that does not stay still but leaps forward.’”