‘On-the-Go Leadership’ Creates ‘Uiryeong Revival Movement’ Praised
Recognized for Creative and Innovative Administration Addressing Local Extinction Crisis
O Tae-wan, Governor of Uiryeong County, Gyeongnam, is taking a commemorative photo at the awards ceremony held at the Millennium Hilton Hotel. [Image source: Provided by Uiryeong County Office]
[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Wook] On the 21st, Oh Tae-wan, the governor of Uiryeong-gun, Gyeongnam, was the only local government head nationwide to receive the Grand Prize in the ‘Creative Innovation Management’ category at the ‘2022 Figures & Management Illuminating the Korean Economy’ awards ceremony hosted by Maekyung Media Group and sponsored by the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and the Win-Win Growth Committee.
Governor Oh was highly evaluated for developing the Uiryeong version of the Saemaul Movement, the ‘Uiryeong Revival Movement,’ into a county-wide campaign through his ‘visiting leadership’ approach.
Governor Oh proactively responded to the severe population extinction crisis commonly faced by small local cities. To overcome the urgent reality of the county facing a serious population extinction crisis and to respond to the crisis, he established the nation’s first dedicated organization for population extinction crisis, the ‘Population Extinction Crisis Response Promotion Team,’ and promoted the enactment of an ordinance to respond to local extinction.
The political strength to concretize the promotion plan beyond just the slogan of the ‘Uiryeong Revival Movement’ also contributed to this award.
Last year, Governor Oh created ‘Season 1’ of the Uiryeong Revival Movement, aiming for a preemptive response to the local extinction issue and the ‘strategic environmental creation’ to tighten the reins on securing local extinction response funds. In this year’s ‘Season 2,’ he has prepared 12 strategic tasks, showing a strong will to achieve substantial ‘performance outcomes.’
The ‘visiting policy delivery’ also attracted high interest from the judges throughout the evaluation. Governor Oh, calling himself the ‘field governor,’ pledged to continuously enter the field to directly resolve civil complaints and work together to find solutions for Uiryeong-gun throughout his term.
Successful cases such as the ‘visiting additional vaccination,’ which exceeded the national average by more than 20%, the ‘visiting agricultural machinery mobile education’ to alleviate inconveniences caused by agricultural machinery breakdowns, and the ‘visiting healing concert’ performing sequentially in 12 myeon (townships) to provide cultural enrichment for local residents have received great responses from the residents.
Governor Oh said, “I think I am receiving this great award thanks to the residents. Thanks to the residents, the administration of Uiryeong-gun is shining even more.”
He added, “The key word of the 8th elected term county administration, change, means a substantial advancement of all policies. I will prepare more creative and innovative administrative execution plans and present them to all residents.”
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