Selected in the 'Youth-Friendly City' Contest Organized by the Office for Government Policy Coordination
FIVE-UP Initiative Recognized for Comprehensive and Future-Oriented Policies
Busan City announced that 'Busanjin-gu' has been finally selected in the first-ever 'Youth-Friendly City' contest organized by the Office for Government Policy Coordination.
The 'Youth-Friendly City' is a system designed to promote youth development and capacity building based on youth participation, create regions that improve the quality of life for young people, and encourage expansion to other local governments. According to the 'Youth Basic Act,' up to three regions nationwide, including cities, counties, autonomous districts, special self-governing cities (Sejong), and special self-governing provinces (Jeju), are selected annually and designated by the Prime Minister for a period of five years.
The three final selected 'Youth-Friendly Cities' are Busanjin-gu in Busan City, Gwanak-gu in Seoul City, and Geochang-gun in Gyeongnam Province.
Busanjin-gu, selected in this contest, will receive a total project budget of 1 billion KRW over five years starting this year (2025) for advisory and educational operations to create a youth-friendly city and to promote policies related to youth-friendly cities.
The Youth-Friendly City contest began with a recruitment announcement in August last year (2024), followed by evaluations by the city’s internal evaluation committee and expert consulting. The process lasted six months, including application submission (October, city → Office for Government Policy Coordination), document evaluation (November, selecting six local governments nationwide), on-site evaluation (December), and presentation evaluation (January 2025).
In October last year, the city internally selected Busanjin-gu and Haeundae-gu to participate in the contest.
Busanjin-gu, geographically the central commercial area of Busan, is the area where the most young people stay and enjoy among the city’s basic local governments. It was highly evaluated for its efforts to activate youth culture centered around Jeonpo Cafe Street and the Busan e-Sports Arena (BRENA), as well as for policy efforts to promote youth mental health.
In particular, the FIVE-UP project, including ▲ Communication UP, ‘Activation of Youth Facilities’ ▲ Job UP, ‘Youth Job Cafe - Employment Manager - One-stop Support for Company Visits’ ▲ Startup UP, ‘From Starting to Succeed in Startups’ ▲ Housing Security UP, ‘Support for Monthly Rent Housing’ ▲ Excitement UP, ‘e-Sports Busanjin Challengers,’ attracted the attention of evaluation committee members with its comprehensive and future-oriented policies covering all aspects of youth policy.
Additionally, by introducing a virtual model (digital twin) into youth policy, Busanjin-gu plans to build facilities that can establish and implement data-driven policies desired by youth, taking the lead in future performance management and expansion.
The city enhanced the completeness of its project plan through its own evaluation committee and expert consulting aiming for the designation as a 'Youth-Friendly City,' and actively responded by attending on-site and presentation evaluations.
Furthermore, the city plans to newly prepare and implement the 2025 Busan City youth policy 'Youth Ji(G)dae' promotion plan, measures to resolve job mismatch, and plans to activate youth spaces (Youth Space Switch ON Project) in connection with the 'Youth-Friendly City' designation.
Mayor Park Hyung-jun said, “We will continue to actively promote effective policies that meet the perspectives of youth to increase policy awareness and do our best to create 'Busan, a city where young people stay and achieve their dreams.'”
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