Goyang-si Holds 2nd Regular Meeting of Population Policy Committee

2024 City Policy Evaluation Including Public-Private Joint Projects to Overcome Low Birthrate
Answers Must Come from Citizens' Voices on Population Issues, Youth, Mothers, and Career-Interrupted Women

Goyang Special City in Gyeonggi Province (Mayor Lee Dong-hwan) announced on the 19th that it held the "2024 2nd Regular Meeting of the Goyang City Population Policy Committee" at the city hall's main conference room on the 18th.

Goyang Special City held the "2024 2nd Regular Meeting of the Goyang City Population Policy Committee" on the 18th at the city hall's large conference room. Provided by Goyang Special City

At this committee meeting, reports and evaluations were conducted on the city-level various population policy projects as well as the "Low Birthrate Overcoming Project," which was promoted to change social perceptions of low birthrate. Practical response measures to the increasingly serious population issues were also discussed.

The "Low Birthrate Overcoming Project" consists of 14 projects mostly implemented without a budget, including ▲awareness improvement ▲culture creation ▲system improvement ▲support projects. The core idea is for the public and private sectors to join forces to promote institutional (joint) projects to spread the values of life, family, community, and work-family balance culture.

In July, on Population Day, Goyang Special City launched a "public-private consultative body" for communication and linkage with various sectors of the local community and has been promoting projects. A representative example is a project where the city collaborates with NongHyup to sponsor "Goyang rice" and "flower bags" for families with two or more children born starting next year in Goyang City.

Also, through the "Birth Celebration Baby Account" project with Goyang Dongbu Saemaeul Geumgo, benefits totaling about 250 million won have been returned to citizens from 2020 to recently.

Three national movement organizations, including the Korea Freedom Federation, conducted a large-scale private-led awareness change campaign in densely populated citizen areas using the slogan "A Small Miracle in the Arms, A Great Future Raised Together."

At the meeting, population policy committee members said they were impressed by the "Goyang City Dalbit Daycare Center," which was converted from a private daycare center to a municipal daycare center by residents voluntarily donating 50 million won. They advised that since daycare centers vary greatly by region, long-term demand should be carefully considered.

Regarding the expansion of the population policy department, generally positive responses were received, with a recommendation to set work promotion directions focusing on youth, childbirth, jobs, and multiculturalism through selection and concentration. It was also evaluated that establishing a dedicated population policy department is necessary to serve as a control tower overseeing population policy projects scattered across various departments.

Various opinions were also expressed regarding research related to population policy. Although the city provides various services, it was emphasized that a precise understanding of what citizens truly want by social class is necessary. There were also suggestions to check the effectiveness and practicality of existing policies through indicator development and evaluation, improve problems, and focus support on areas that are actually needed.

In particular, women have high concerns about employment stability such as career interruption and reemployment. There was an opinion that it is necessary to assess how much past efforts to resolve career interruptions have been supplemented and to conduct research on a society where child-rearing can be done in a more stable environment.

A Goyang Special City official said, "Although our city's population has increased, this is largely due to population inflow. In 2022, natural population decline occurred as the number of deaths exceeded the number of births," adding, "We will work with a sense of crisis to create quality jobs and prepare policies considering regional characteristics."