[Interview] Oh Tae-wan, Mayor of Uiryeong County, Gyeongnam, 100 Days in Office: "Facing Local Extinction Crisis, I Will Be the Tablesetter for a New Plan"

Preparing for the Next 50 Years, Dual Drive of Administrative Town and Burimsandan Economy

Determined to Lead the 'Uiryeong Revival Movement' with Outreach Leadership

O Tae-wan, the governor of Uiryeong-gun, Gyeongnam, is announcing feasible plans for the happiness of the residents and the development of the county on the occasion of his 100th day in office.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Wook] “I will make Uiryeong not only the geographical but also the functional center of Gyeongnam. I will become the ‘tablesetter’ who reshapes Uiryeong’s future for the next 50 years.”

Oh Tae-wan, the mayor of Uiryeong County, said he would be the leadoff hitter in baseball terms. Marking 100 days since his inauguration in the 8th local government term, Mayor Oh, who aims to lay the cornerstone for Uiryeong’s success and further for Gyeongnam’s victory, was elected in a by-election last year as a relief pitcher and started his second term in July after being chosen again by the residents this year.

Since taking office, mid- to long-term project plans that will determine Uiryeong’s future have gradually surfaced. In an era of local extinction and population crisis, Uiryeong County has faced the crisis by leading change. Mayor Oh showed his determination to play his role as a ‘tablesetter,’ a term meaning ‘the person who prepares scoring opportunities for the team.’ He intends to lay a new foundation and create development momentum to prepare for winning the game for Uiryeong’s future.

Mayor Oh said, “The purpose of a tablesetter is to get on base. I will move quickly to make Uiryeong’s presence known on the central stage. We will survive the extinction crisis without getting out,” adding, “I will create a hopeful Uiryeong for tomorrow and provide scoring opportunities for future generations. Calmly accumulating points for a winning game will be the ultimate goal of the 8th local government term,” expressing his resolve around the 100-day mark of his inauguration.

Having been reappointed by the residents, he set three goals: a prosperous and vibrant economy, attractive education and culture, and an innovative and efficient county administration. Facing the era’s challenge of overcoming local extinction, Mayor Oh formed a practical task force to establish the vision system for the 8th local government term to make Uiryeong a better place to live through new changes.

Mayor Oh announced plans starting with promoting the ‘Uiryeong Revival Movement,’ a local version of the Saemaul Undong, as a county-wide movement. To overcome the urgent reality of the severe population extinction crisis, Uiryeong County established the nation’s first dedicated organization for extinction crisis response, the ‘Extinction Crisis Response Promotion Team,’ and is pushing for the enactment of an ordinance to respond to local extinction.

Last year was ‘Season 1,’ focused on creating a strategic environment tightening the reins on preemptive response effects and securing local extinction response funds. In ‘Season 2,’ he showed strong determination to set strategic tasks and achieve substantial results.

O Tae-wan, the governor of Uiryeong-gun, Gyeongnam, is visiting the first youth store in Uiryeong-gun and personally attaching the nameplate.

“We set the keywords for Uiryeong Revival Movement Season 2 as Change, Communication, and Participation, and established promotion goals of ‘Innovative Uiryeong through Change,’ ‘Empathetic Uiryeong through Communication,’ and ‘Unified Uiryeong through Participation.’”

Mayor Oh explained the directions Season 2 aims for and introduced 12 strategic tasks.

He said, “To gain residents’ empathy, we will hold the ‘Hope Uiryeong Academy’ and ‘Innovation Workshops’ to strengthen capabilities, where all residents will come together to discuss intensively about increasing the population. We will also operate a ‘Mobile Mayor’s Office’ to collect diverse opinions from all walks of life and promote the ‘Hometown Love Donation System’ targeting alumni associations and emigrant entrepreneurs.”

Uiryeong County uses ideas as the most precious fuel to ignite the Uiryeong Revival Movement and holds ‘Thinking Connection Days’ twice a month to gather even the smallest ideas to sprout the movement.

Mayor Oh proudly introduced the county’s bold brainstorming sessions, saying, “We randomly select employees by department to conduct lively, informal, and paperless ‘Noisy Strange TALKING’ sessions.” He also introduced the ‘Uiryeong愛 Live Well!’ project, inspired by the Saemaul Undong’s ‘Let’s Live Well!’ slogan.

Mayor Oh said, “Uiryeong County will change and innovate to meet the era’s challenge of overcoming the extinction crisis. Positive changes have begun this year with a slight increase in Uiryeong’s population. We will create a bigger turnaround through aggressive change.”

He set a strategy to ‘double-handle’ Uiryeong’s economic development with two main axes: the ‘Administrative Town’ in Uiryeong-eup and the ‘Industrial Complex’ in Burim-myeon. The plan is to strengthen Uiryeong’s economic ‘two pillars’ with specialized pledges for Uiryeong-eup, the county’s largest downtown, and Burim-myeon, the eastern regional center.

O Tae-wan, County Governor (left), who signed the Human Tech investment agreement with Governor Park Wan-su.

In Uiryeong-eup, efforts are underway to revise the national road network plan to extend the Jincheon-Hapcheon Expressway through Uiryeong-eup to Goseong, and in Burim-myeon, early promotion of the four-lane expansion of National Road No. 20 is being considered.

On this well-connected arterial road network, Mayor Oh’s core pledge is to make the Seodong Administrative Town in Uiryeong-eup and the general industrial complex in Burim-myeon the two main forward bases leading Uiryeong’s development.

Mayor Oh said, “We plan to reorganize the Seodong Administrative Town in Uiryeong-eup into a self-sufficient complex administrative town urban development project and add a future food-specialized industrial complex near the Burim General Industrial Complex, which is currently being developed on a scale of 1 million pyeong (approx. 3.3 million sq. meters).” He emphasized his intention to completely overhaul Uiryeong-eup’s urban plan. The Uiryeong Police Station and Education Support Office will also relocate to the administrative town, aiming to complete the Seodong Administrative Town within his term.

In Burim-myeon, the eastern regional center, revitalization plans through the industrial complex are underway. With the completion of the Hamyang-Ulsan Expressway, the Burim General Industrial Complex will also be completed, and the strategy is to aggressively attract excellent companies to serve as the lifeline for Uiryeong County facing the ‘extinction crisis.’ Good news has arrived in the economic sector since the start of the 8th local government term. Uiryeong County attracted an investment of 12.3 billion KRW from HumanTech to the Uiryeong Dongdong Agricultural Industrial Complex.

Mayor Oh has been focusing on ‘visiting’ policies since taking office, meaning delivering policies centered on the field. It is also a strategy to have eup and myeon heads lead policies on the front lines of each region. Introducing the successful case of ‘visiting additional vaccinations,’ which was over 20% higher than the national average, he plans to increase policy services where eup and myeon heads directly visit and care for residents who need them.

There are many successful cases of visiting policies. These include the well-received sharing laundromat in Uiryeong-eup and Gungnyu-myeon, listening to difficulties at village heat shelters in Garye-myeon and Daeui-myeon, distribution of relief supplies to case management targets in Burim-myeon, and the ‘Field-Centered Work Series ONE’ for on-site inspections of disaster-prone areas. The series of ‘visiting’ policies also includes the COVID-19 4th additional vaccination, visiting agricultural machinery touring education, and visiting healing concerts for residents in myeon areas.

Mayor Oh also emphasized the ‘Companion for the Vulnerable’ project to eliminate welfare blind spots, dedicating administrative power to care for households in crisis. At his inauguration, he repeatedly proclaimed the message, “I can do anything for the residents.”

Uiryeong County plans to go beyond the limits of welfare based on residence and application principles by practicing ‘visiting welfare’ and sharing the promotion status of eup and myeon’s own welfare specialization projects to provide more detailed ‘community-based’ welfare services, he emphasized.

Uiryeong is the birthplace of the nation’s first righteous army and the hometown of the founder of Samsung, Korea’s top-tier company. Mayor Oh stressed that he will not let go of Uiryeong’s ‘dignity’ and will promote various policies accordingly.

At Mayor Oh’s proposal, the ‘Light up’ project will be promoted to brighten the entire city with light and color. He introduced plans to create special lighting around the Righteous Army Tower, Chungiksa Shrine, Uiryeonggyo pedestrian path, Cloud Bridge, and Seodong Living Park. The idea is to illuminate Uiryeong’s pride and the symbol of the righteous army with light and illumination.

Uiryeong County will also showcase its dignity as a ‘Hangeul City.’ Uiryeong is the birthplace and hometown of revered figures who made noble sacrifices to protect the Korean language and script during the Japanese colonial period, such as Lee Geuk-ro from Goru, Lee Woo-sik from Namjeo, and An Ho-sang from Hanmo. This is the background for promoting the establishment of the National Korean Language Dictionary Museum in Uiryeong.

In March, a ‘Scholarly Presentation for the Establishment of the National Korean Language Dictionary Museum in Uiryeong’ was held at the National Assembly, drawing attention. It was also selected as a pledge project by Park Wan-su, Governor of Gyeongsangnam-do, and the province is jointly pursuing the establishment with a ‘shared goal.’

“We will also actively begin healing the victims of the Gungnyu shooting incident, a 40-year-old grievance and pain of Uiryeong.”

Mayor Oh is proactive about building a memorial monument to heal the wounds of Uiryeong caused by the so-called ‘Woo Police Incident.’ At the end of last year, he secured a special grant from the government, accelerating the process. Uiryeong County announced plans for land compensation for the memorial park this year, held a design contest for the memorial monument, and plans to start construction in the second half of next year.

Mayor Oh said he will use residents’ participation as the most precious fuel to ignite administrative innovation in Uiryeong. He aims to build a system that extensively collects residents’ opinions in budget and policy decision-making processes based on resident participation.

O Tae-wan, Uiryeong County Governor, recipient of the 2022 National Public Sympathy Autonomous Administration Management Administrative Innovation Award.

Mayor Oh Tae-wan said, “I communicate and empathize with residents at every moment while discovering innovative cases.” He said it is the mayor’s role to help residents become owners themselves and directly engage in local administration.

He cited creative and innovative exemplary cases reflecting local characteristics and residents’ lives, such as setting up a ‘Happy Laundromat’ for neighbors in need, assigning road names to vinyl greenhouses, and a taxi-sharing service that reassures students returning home.

Uiryeong County was selected as an excellent institution for two consecutive years in the ‘2021 Local Government Innovation Evaluation’ hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The county earned high scores in the ‘Leadership of the Head of Institution’ category.

Mayor Oh said with a determined voice, “From now on, I will clench my fists and work with a resolve of ‘fight to the death.’ The core keyword of the 8th local government term is change, and I will practically advance all policies.”