Yun Byeong-tae, Mayor of Naju, Outlines First Organizational Restructuring... Establishes New Tourism, Culture, and Environment Bureau

[Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong] On the 11th, Naju City in Jeollanam-do announced the legislative notice of the ‘8th Term Naju City Organization Restructuring Plan,’ designed with 4 bureaus, 3 offices, and 31 departments, including the establishment of ‘1 bureau and 1 department’ such as the Tourism, Culture and Environment Bureau and the Infectious Disease Control Department.

This organizational restructuring focuses on citizen-centered innovative administration to realize the city’s goal of ‘A Livable and Happy Naju, A Leading Naju,’ establishing future 100-year food strategies such as fostering new energy industries, and strengthening citizen safety and expanding welfare.

It also emphasizes the speedy promotion of the 7 major areas of the 8th term election pledges, strengthening departmental expertise to support this, and efficient personnel allocation through large-scale integration and abolition of similar and overlapping functional departments.

The city plans to establish the ‘Tourism, Culture and Environment Bureau’ through this restructuring.

The establishment of this bureau reflects Mayor Yoon Byung-tae’s strong will that ‘tourism’ must be the key topic at the center of Naju’s great transformation.

The Tourism, Culture and Environment Bureau will focus on establishing Naju tourism’s identity by utilizing the Yeongsan River and the millennium-old Moksa village’s historical, cultural, and ecological resources, improving citizens’ quality of life, and strengthening cultural and leisure functions to revitalize the local economy.

Due to the establishment of the bureau, the organization and names of the 4 bureaus have also been partially adjusted and changed.

The city has organized the ‘Future Strategic Industry Bureau’ as a dedicated bureau for creating future food sources such as jobs, ultra-wide area cooperation projects, and fostering new energy industries, placing it as a priority bureau.

In particular, the ‘Future Strategy Department’ has been newly established under the bureau to develop future-oriented policies and strategies such as large-scale projects linked to national industries, cooperation for Innovation City Season 2, public big data, and statistical analysis.

Conversely, the Urban Regeneration Department under the bureau will be abolished, and urban regeneration-related tasks will be transferred to the Urban Department of the Safe City Construction Bureau, while the existing General Affairs Bureau will be renamed the ‘Administrative Welfare Bureau.’

Following the bureaus, the three offices?‘Planning and Budget Office,’ ‘Audit Office,’ and ‘Policy and Public Relations Office’?will be organized directly under the Deputy Mayor.

Among these, the ‘Policy and Public Relations Office’ has been reorganized focusing on policy development and publicity functions to improve issues in the existing Communication Policy Office and strengthen real-time communication with citizens.

The existing publicity team’s tasks will be divided into ‘Publicity Planning’ and the newly established ‘New Media Publicity Team,’ focusing on new media publicity such as YouTube and Instagram, differentiated from traditional media.

The organizational restructuring of the directly affiliated Agricultural Technology Center and Health Center also draws attention.

The Agricultural Technology Center will maintain its current organizational framework but will rearrange departments to increase work efficiency and respond to the rapidly changing agricultural environment, establishing the ‘Naju Food Culture Team’ aiming to brand Naju’s dining table.

The Health Center will establish the ‘Infectious Disease Control Department’ to strengthen the infectious disease response system protecting citizens’ health and safety from the resurgence of COVID-19 and new infectious diseases.

The number of Naju city officials will be maintained at the current authorized number of 1,189 in accordance with the current government’s freeze policy.

Mayor Yoon Byung-tae said, “This organizational restructuring focuses on reorganizing bureaus centered on departments with similar functions to balance workload by bureau and efficiently reallocating personnel to create an organization that strengthens communication with citizens and promotes election pledges efficiently.”

He added, “I hope this will be the cornerstone for realizing a global small but strong city of 200,000 through citizen-centered innovative administration that carefully manages fostering new energy industries looking ahead 100 years into Naju’s future, establishing Naju’s tourism identity, and ensuring citizens’ safety and welfare.”

The first organizational restructuring plan of the 8th term Naju City will be submitted to the ‘244th Naju City Council Extraordinary Session’ scheduled to be held this month after collecting citizens’ opinions during the legislative notice period.

Naju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yukbong baekok@asiae.co.kr