Mokpo Mayor Park Hong-ryul Receives Korea CEO Leadership Award

Grand Prize in Innovation Management... Presenting Mokpo's Future Vision Through the Great Mokpo Sought by Youth

Park Hong-ryul, Mayor of Mokpo City, received the Grand Prize in the Innovation Management category at the 12th ‘2024 Korea CEO Leadership Awards’ held on the 20th at The Plaza Hotel in Seoul.

According to the city, the ‘Korea CEO Leadership Awards,’ hosted by JoongAng Ilbo and sponsored by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, is an award established to highlight and encourage Korean CEOs who lead innovative leadership by embracing change and continuously innovating amid rapidly changing times and intense competition.

Mayor Park Hong-ryul was highly praised for presenting the vision of a greater Mokpo sought by youth, strengthening urban competitiveness, and creating a turning point for Mokpo’s great leap forward.

Mayor Park is laying the foundation for a greater Mokpo sought by youth by establishing the groundwork for youth-centered 4th industrial revolution development, including the Youth Startup Knowledge Industry Center, Small and Strong Smart City Development Project, and the K-Digital Platform Contest Project.

Park Hong-ryul (center), mayor and Mokpo city employees who received the Korea CEO Leadership Award are taking a commemorative photo. [Photo by Mokpo City]

He is also accelerating the establishment of a foundation for eco-friendly ships and special shipbuilding industries, leading the creation of an eco-friendly ship cluster that will drive a major transformation in the K-shipbuilding industry.

Furthermore, together with the Mokpo Fisheries Food Support Center, he is advancing Mokpo as a hub for the kim industry and a central city for the fisheries food industry, including storage, processing, and distribution, while also leading proactive administration that citizens can directly feel the effectiveness of.

Above all, by hosting the 104th National Sports Festival and the 43rd National Para Games as the best-ever major sports events and as festivals of national unity, culture, and hope, he has opened the path for Mokpo to leap forward as an advanced sports city.

During the National Sports Festival period, cultural tourism events such as the Mokpo Harbor Festival, Mokpo Marine W Show, Literature Expo, and Cultural Heritage Night Tour were intensively held to revitalize the local tourism industry, demonstrating outstanding leadership by developing unique tourism products exclusive to Mokpo.

Mayor Park is also committed to stabilizing people’s livelihoods and enhancing citizen welfare. He strengthened the issuance of Mokpo Love Gift Certificates to support small business owners and self-employed individuals, implemented 100-won bus fares for elementary, middle, and high school students, expanded senior citizen grooming vouchers, froze local public utility fees, and worked on modernizing aging facilities in traditional markets.

As a result, Mokpo was selected as the best basic local government nationwide in the comprehensive price stabilization management evaluation by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and ranked first among local small and medium-sized cities in the Korea City Awards hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, achieving results in various fields.

In this way, Mayor Park Hong-ryul’s efforts have become a model for others, and his innovative leadership is being demonstrated by faithfully incorporating the sustainable future vision of ‘Mokpo City’ into management strategies.

Mayor Park Hong-ryul said, “I believe this award is thanks to the frontline public officials who have led the construction of a greater Mokpo with a strong sense of mission and the citizens who supported large-scale events and new regional growth engines. I will continue to listen to the voices of citizens and communicate to realize a greater Mokpo with my best efforts.”

Meanwhile, on the 18th, Mayor Park Hong-ryul was the only recipient from a basic local government to receive the Local Government Grand Prize at the ‘2023 Construction Safety and Environment Awards’ hosted by the Korea Construction Safety and Environment Practice Federation.