Yeongam County Launches First Residents' Self-Governing Councils in Five Towns and Townships

162 Members Appointed
"Residents to Solve Issues Themselves"

The five Eup and Myeon Residents’ Autonomy Councils of Yeongam-gun, Jeollanam-do (Governor Woo Seunghee) held the ‘1st Yeongam-gun Residents’ Autonomy Council Inauguration Ceremony’ at the Yeongam County Civic Center on the 13th.

According to the county on the 14th, 162 members of the Residents’ Autonomy Councils from Yeongam-eup, Sijong-myeon, Dobo-myeon, Gunseo-myeon, and Seho-myeon received their letters of appointment at the event and declared that they would carry out residents’ autonomy activities in each Eup and Myeon for the next two years.

Woongsoo Lee, Yeongam County Governor, is taking a commemorative photo with the appointed committee members at the inauguration ceremony of the 1st Resident Autonomy Committee. Provided by Yeongam County

At the inauguration ceremony, Woo Seunghee, Governor of Yeongam-gun, stated, “I will spare no effort in supporting the successful establishment of residents’ autonomy for the first council members in the region.”

He continued, “I hope residents will raise issues themselves, solve them, and supplement shortcomings through cooperation,” and emphasized, “As this year marks the 30th anniversary of the nationwide local elections, I ask Yeongam’s newly launched Residents’ Autonomy Council to create a new model leading local autonomy in Korea.”

The inauguration ceremony included a report on the progress of establishing the Residents’ Autonomy Council, a reading of the council members’ resolution, an inauguration performance, and a special lecture on residents’ autonomy. To launch the Eup and Myeon Residents’ Autonomy Councils, Yeongam-gun held 12 policy meetings and explanation sessions last year to inform residents about the necessity and vision of the councils.

Furthermore, five Eup and Myeon were selected through the ‘Residents’ Autonomy Pilot Eup and Myeon Contest,’ and after conducting seven rounds of resident education via the ‘Yeongam-gun Residents’ Autonomy School,’ the first council members were publicly recruited and selected.

The council members appointed at the inauguration ceremony will now be assigned to each Eup and Myeon, where they will raise and resolve village issues and play a leading role in local residents’ autonomy activities.

A county official stated, “We will support the 1st Residents’ Autonomy Council so that it can be established as a grassroots democracy representative system, and we will reflect the council’s opinions in county administration.”