‘Blockchain-Based Volunteer Bank’ Establishment Accelerates... Busan City Builds Large-City Volunteer Platform

A Platform for Reciprocal and Public Service Exchange Among Citizens

"We Will Realize Busan as a Happy City That Empowers Me"

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] On the morning of the 7th at 9 a.m., Busan City held the 7th Busan Future Innovation Meeting chaired by Mayor Park Hyung-jun at the Father Lee Tae-seok Memorial Hall (located in Nambumin-dong, Seo-gu) to discuss the ‘Activation Plan for Blockchain-based Volunteer Bank.’

The 7th Busan Future Innovation Meeting, chaired by Mayor Park Hyung-jun, discussed strategies to revitalize the 'Blockchain-based Volunteer Bank'.

The meeting was convened to present the future direction of Busan volunteering for this year’s execution plan establishment and platform construction, following the completion of the ‘Study on Establishing the Implementation Plan for Blockchain-based Volunteer Bank’ conducted in 2022. It aimed to share the vision, goals, and implementation plans of the core project, the ‘Volunteer Bank,’ and to listen to and discuss the voices of field experts and practitioners.

The ‘Blockchain-based Volunteer Bank,’ a new concept project promoted to activate volunteering as a mayoral pledge project, is an online platform where citizens can exchange reciprocal and public-spirited volunteer services among themselves. It moves away from traditional volunteering with fixed roles, allowing any citizen to actively become both a volunteer and a beneficiary.

Additionally, by integrating blockchain technology, it is expected to secure greater transparency, reliability, and security compared to existing systems.

Summary of the Basic Concept for a Blockchain-Based Volunteer Bank.

The meeting proceeded with ▲a video keynote presentation by Nichole Cirillo, Secretary-General of the World Volunteer Council, on ‘The Keynote and Direction of Global Volunteering’ ▲a keynote presentation by Park Yoon-ae, Director of the Korea Central Volunteer Center, on ‘The 4th National Basic Plan for Volunteer Promotion and Measures to Activate Informal Volunteering’ ▲a policy presentation by Lee Soo-il, Director of the Administrative Autonomy Bureau of Busan City, on the vision, core values, and five major strategies for activating the blockchain-based volunteer bank ▲and a session for hearing opinions and discussions from field experts for the activation of the volunteer bank.

In particular, regarding the core agenda of this meeting, the activation plan for the blockchain-based volunteer bank, the city set the vision of ‘Creating an attractive living space with a high quality of life as a happy community where all Busan citizens become neighbors.’ To promote volunteering as a daily practice, it aims to achieve ‘one million citizen participants in the volunteer bank to realize a warm community,’ with core values of ‘relationship connection’ and ‘trust recovery,’ and plans to implement five major strategies.

The main strategies to lead this project include ▲building a voluntary matching platform ▲sharing value and performance through big data ▲capacity development and job creation ▲establishing partnerships linked to the local community ▲and creating a virtuous cycle system of citizen-led imagination and practice.

To ensure the initial settlement and execution power of the volunteer bank, the city plans to actively utilize current volunteer resources by linking 100 volunteer camps centered on 17 volunteer centers as neighborhood activity hubs to perform mutually interconnected roles.

Furthermore, in preparation for the volunteer bank platform scheduled to be established by the end of the year, various pilot projects will be promoted this year to ensure the successful settlement of the volunteer bank.

Experts attending the meeting proposed various opinions on the volunteer bank activation strategy, including ▲establishing a virtuous cycle structure of supply and demand along with creating added value within the platform ▲diversifying platform activity areas such as tourism passes and Dongbaekjeon ▲developing linkage plans between existing official volunteering and informal volunteering ▲and the need for many changes and preparations for blockchain-based private-led governance. The city decided to actively reflect these suggestions.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun stated, “Promoting the volunteer bank means creating a community of good relationships through volunteering,” and added, “If the blockchain volunteer bank is properly established and operated, it will be an innovative opportunity to greatly change the volunteer system in our country.”

He continued, “We will thoroughly implement the execution plan for the ‘Blockchain-based Volunteer Bank’ by reflecting the opinions and discussions presented at today’s meeting to become ‘Busan, a happy city that empowers me’ through relationship connection and trust recovery.”

The ‘Busan Future Innovation Meeting’ is a meeting where the mayor of Busan, Park Hyung-jun, along with civil, government, and academic sectors, participate together to proactively respond to urgent city issues and seek strategic promotion plans through broad discussions. It is held regularly once a month.