Gwangju Seo-gu Selected as an 'Excellent Institution' in Government Innovation Evaluation for 7 Consecutive Years

Seo-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Kim Ikang) was selected as an excellent institution with the highest grade in the ‘2023 Local Government Innovation Evaluation’ hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Seogu District Office exterior. [Photo by Seogu]

According to Seo-gu on the 28th, this evaluation is conducted annually by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety to strengthen the autonomous innovation capabilities of local governments and create innovation outcomes that residents can feel, targeting 243 local governments nationwide.

Last year, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s local government innovation evaluation team and task department evaluation team conducted an innovation performance evaluation on 10 indicators across three categories: innovation capability, innovation performance, and public perception.

Seo-gu received excellent evaluations in most indicators, including the institution head’s innovation leadership, resident communication, activation of public-private cooperation, digital-based service innovation, user-centered public service improvement, and improvement of work methods and organizational culture, ranking 3rd in the comprehensive evaluation among autonomous districts nationwide.

In particular, Seo-gu received high scores for efforts to enhance resident convenience, such as ‘Our Neighborhood Healing Park,’ which reflects the voices of users, residents, and children from park planning to creation; ‘Baro Munja Harangkke,’ which instantly resolves daily civil complaints with a simple text message; the provision of proactive and customized friendly civil services unique to Seo-gu; and the opening of ‘School Shared Parking Lots’ to solve residents’ parking difficulties.

Kim Ikang, Mayor of Seo-gu, said, “The continuous efforts to practice proactive administration to realize innovative policies that satisfy residents and can be felt in daily life have led to the excellent institution selection in the innovation evaluation for seven consecutive years. We will continue to create a flexible organizational culture that does not fear new changes in a rapidly changing environment and strive tirelessly for sustainable innovation.”

Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Shin Dongho baekok@asiae.co.kr