Establishment of the Culture, Tourism, and Sports Bureau... Promotion of the Year of Yangsan Visits 2026
Creation of 1 Bureau and 1 Directly Affiliated Agency, 28 Staff Increase... Dynamic Organizational Operation
Yangsan City in Gyeongnam has prepared an organizational restructuring plan under the direction of "Colorful City, Adding Color," and will enter a seven-day legislative notice period starting October 24.
On the morning of the 23rd, Mayor Na Dong-yeon held a briefing at the Yangsan City Hall Press Center and announced the organizational restructuring plan for next January.
This restructuring was promoted following the revision of the "Regulations on Administrative Organizations and Staffing Standards of Local Governments" in March, which allowed autonomy in establishing director-level (Grade 4) organizations, thereby expanding local organizational authority and creating conditions to proactively lead local era policies.
Major projects leading the future, such as the blueprint for the Hwangsan Park complex leisure project, the Hoeyagang Renaissance vision, selection of technology development and demonstration projects for aerospace and defense sealant materials, selection of candidate sites for the spatial innovation zone pilot project, and approval of the Yangsan Arboretum development site, have been firmly established. In addition, the focus was placed on key projects and adding color to the city to create a colorful Yangsan.
To promote key projects aimed at increasing the living population, the plan includes reorganizing the Future Innovation Bureau, establishing the Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau, partially addressing medical service gaps in the eastern Yangsan area, enhancing medical functions, and upgrading the Wongsang Health Center to a health office to strengthen the emergency medical system.
▲ Establishment of the Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau as a control tower for tourism to promote the 2026 Year of Visit Yangsan
To enable citizens to enjoy infrastructure and content consumption at the level of a metropolitan city in culture, tourism, sports, and green spaces, the Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau will be newly established as a control tower to plan and oversee projects such as building tourism infrastructure at Hwangsan Park as a waterfront leisure tourism hub and family-friendly complex cultural space, promoting tourism marketing linked with Tongdosa Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and other national heritage sites, constructing a municipal art museum and cultural arts center, discovering joint projects with six local governments of the Nakdong River Council, and developing the Cheonseongsan Sunrise tourism resource project in connection with Sintra City in Portugal.
The establishment of this bureau is the core of this organizational restructuring. The newly created tourism division within the bureau will promote the "Year of Visit Yangsan" project in 2026, marking the 30th anniversary of the city's elevation, while the sports support division will strengthen sports marketing to attract training camps and nationwide sports competitions.
Notably, the upcoming year, when the bureau is established, will be the inaugural year for equipping the city with infrastructure as a dynamic tourist city where culture breathes, and it will be reborn as a colorful city differentiated from others.
▲ Full effort to attract living population for a sustainable city, Yangsan
The Future Innovation Bureau, previously a temporary organization that achieved results such as fostering new growth engine industries like medical, bio, and E-mobility, supporting technology startups that create jobs and high added value, selecting technology development and demonstration projects for aerospace and defense sealant materials, and selecting candidate sites for spatial innovation zone pilot projects, will be made a permanent organization.
The specialized projects within the Future Innovation Bureau will be abolished to unify planning and execution functions due to the stabilization of major key projects, and personnel will be reallocated to newly established departments. The Transportation Division will be split into the Transportation Policy Division and Public Transportation Division and transferred to the Future Innovation Bureau along with the Information and Communications Division.
Based on well-connected transportation conditions, the city plans to improve residential conditions and attract visitors by implementing metropolitan transportation measures, building transportation infrastructure such as railway networks, launching ultra-precise bus map services using Kakao Map, and operating customized tourism programs based on big data analysis of the living population.
▲ Upgrading Wongsang Health Center to Wongsang Health Office to partially address medical service gaps in eastern Yangsan
To resolve the emergency medical service gap and residents' concerns following the closure of Wongsang Central Hospital, the existing Wongsang Health Center, previously a department-level unit, will be upgraded to the directly managed Wongsang Health Office. Accordingly, the Preventive Medicine Team will be reorganized into an Emergency Medicine Team dedicated to rapid and accurate response in emergencies, and new teams such as the Public Medical Care Team and Infectious Disease Prevention Team will be established to strengthen medical functions by reinforcing essential personnel including doctors and nurses and to proactively respond to infectious disease prevention.
With the upgrade to a health office, the organization will carry out unique integrated health promotion projects tailored to the demands of eastern Yangsan citizens and reflect this in the organization to fully dedicate itself to establishing a proper emergency medical system through active administrative and financial support.
▲ Dynamic organizational operation with the establishment of 1 bureau and 1 directly managed institution and an increase of 28 staff members
With this restructuring, the Culture, Tourism and Sports Bureau and Wongsang Health Office will be newly established, reorganizing the city into 8 bureaus, 3 offices, 52 divisions, 1 branch office, 3 directly managed institutions, and 4 business offices. The staff count will increase by 28 to a total of 1,397. The increase in staff is prioritized for the establishment of Wongsang Health Office, disaster situation rooms directly related to citizens' lives and safety, operation of water purification plants and stormwater drainage teams, and necessary personnel for newly established departments. The city expects that this increase will partially alleviate employees' workload and enhance motivation.
To expand promotion opportunities for lower-level positions and boost morale, the city increased the staff for Grade 6 and Grade 7 positions by 15 and 32 respectively in July and October. In this restructuring, the plan is to further increase Grade 6 and Grade 7 staff by 13 and 5 respectively, and Grade 4 and Grade 5 staff by one each.
Mayor Na Dong-yeon stated, "Just as cities continuously evolve to embody the values and philosophies demanded by their times, the administrative organization of Yangsan City will serve as a vessel reflecting the values and philosophies of its citizens. As mayor, I will do my best to realize a sustainable Yangsan." He added, "Through this organizational restructuring, we will add color to the hearts of our citizens and the city itself, delivering administration that meets the will and expectations of our citizens."
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