‘An Expo Hosted with Citizens and Enjoyed Worldwide’ in Busan!

April On-Site Inspection Preparation Status Meeting Held

At 9 AM on the 14th at City Hall, Presided by Mayor Park Hyung-jun

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Busan City and 16 districts and counties are pooling their capabilities in preparation for the on-site inspection by the International Bureau of Expositions (BIE)!

On the morning of the 14th, Busan City held a ‘Preparation Status Report Meeting for the International Bureau of Expositions (BIE) On-site Inspection’ at the first-floor conference room of City Hall, chaired by Mayor Park Hyung-jun, with district heads, county governors, and private experts in attendance.

Preparation Status Report Meeting for On-site Inspection by the International Bureau of Expositions (BIE).

This meeting was organized to review and discuss the preparation status as the BIE on-site inspection is less than two months away, focusing on creating an atmosphere of citizen participation to effectively convey Busan City's strong desire to host the expo to the inspection team.

The meeting proceeded with ▲a comprehensive briefing on the progress of the on-site inspection preparations, followed by ▲reports on preparation status by sector including public atmosphere creation, environmental maintenance, safety management, publicity, transportation, and tourism accommodation readiness, and ▲discussions and expert suggestions.

The 8th term of the Busan City administration has emphasized communication and innovation between the city and districts/counties, holding a workshop on July 2 last year with the mayor and district heads/county governors, where they declared the ‘City-District/County Communication Innovation Practice Declaration’ along with the ‘Joint Declaration of Support for Expo Hosting.’

Since then, the city and districts/counties have been collaborating on various plans to attract the 2030 Busan World Expo, and at today’s meeting, they pledged to mobilize all their capabilities.

The city considers the enthusiasm and support of its citizens as the most important evaluation criteria to decide the host city for the 2030 World Expo, which will be determined this November.

Accordingly, the city plans to organize various citizen-participatory festivals and atmosphere-building events during the ‘EXPO WEEK’ around the time of the inspection team’s visit, creating a festival space where not only citizens but also domestic and international tourists visiting Busan can enjoy, participate, and experience.

By gathering citizens’ enthusiasm, the city intends to promote large-scale events such as ▲unique welcoming ceremonies ▲fireworks festivals ▲events to showcase Korean culture (K-Culture), with detailed plans to be finalized through further practical discussions.

In this regard, Busan City has allocated a special adjustment grant of 3.3 billion KRW to all districts and counties to sufficiently promote the city’s charm and global competitiveness both domestically and internationally, and to utilize various events as catalysts for attracting the Expo to Busan.

During the discussion, there was consensus on the need for ▲district and county atmosphere-building events to not be one-off but to sustain interest and enthusiasm for the expo throughout the year, ▲real-time broadcasting measures to allow viewing of district and county events at a glance on screen, ▲maximizing the use of Busan’s nightscape for strategic linkage with events and emphasizing Busan’s charm to the fullest, and ▲actively promoting Busan’s 70-year development history, showing that Busan, South Korea, is a city capable of cooperating globally to provide solutions to issues such as water, medical care, food, and energy.

Park Hyung-jun, Mayor of Busan.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun said, “Currently, the preparation for the on-site inspection is being carried out at a national level. We must prepare so that from the moment the inspection team arrives in Busan until they leave, every moment they move will be impressive by showcasing Busan’s infrastructure, culture, and natural environment well.” He added, “Since the will of the host city and the enthusiasm of its citizens are most important, I ask for your best efforts to ensure that the inspection team can directly see and feel the passionate desire of Busan citizens for hosting. I hope that from now until the inspection, all districts and counties will be filled with the voluntary enthusiasm of the citizens,” urging cooperation from districts and counties and participation from citizens.