After Preliminary, Expert, Citizen, and Presentation Evaluations of 503 Ideas
Online Voting Held, with 4,435 Citizens Participating in the Review
Ten projects, proposed by public institution employees in Busan and selected by citizens, have been chosen to be implemented as policies.
On December 21, the Busan Metropolitan Government announced that it had selected ten outstanding ideas from its "Policy Idea Contest" for public institution employees.
This contest was held under the theme "Ideas Proposed by Busan Public Institution Employees - Policies That Create Happier Citizens and a Better Busan." The aim was to discover policy ideas that would enhance citizens' happiness and strengthen Busan's competitiveness as a global hub city, and to incorporate these ideas into municipal administration.
A total of 503 ideas were submitted during the contest period. The city conducted a preliminary review to shortlist 51 ideas, after which an expert panel selected 15. Following a citizen review, the final ten projects were confirmed. Subsequently, through presentation evaluations and additional scoring, the rankings were determined: one Grand Prize, two Excellence Awards, three Outstanding Awards, and four Encouragement Awards.
Busan Mayor Park Hyungjun (far right) stood in front of the camera with the Busan Transportation Corporation's "Public Transportation Activation Promotion Team," which was selected as the "Grand Prize" winner.
The Grand Prize was awarded to the "Public Transportation Activation Promotion Team" from Busan Transportation Corporation for their project, "Adding Culture to Public Transportation: Transportation-Tourism Convergence Project." This proposal suggested integrating Busan's tourism resources, intellectual property (IP) content, and experiential platforms with public transportation such as subways and buses, thereby expanding transportation into a tourism resource. The project received high marks for targeting both increased tourist inflow and revitalization of public transportation usage.
The Excellence Awards went to two projects: "Creation of a Citizen-Accessible Park: Meditation Forest at Daejeo Train Depot" by Jung Yundeok of Busan Transportation Corporation, and "Improving Tunnel Smoke Ventilation Performance through Structural Modification" by the "Guardian" team from Busan Facilities Corporation. Jung Yundeok proposed opening the green space within the train depot to citizens, while the Guardian team suggested that structural improvements could enhance tunnel fire response capabilities even with a limited budget.
Other awarded ideas included a unified lost-and-found inquiry service, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based disaster response system, and an early detection system for missing persons-projects aimed at improving citizen safety and daily convenience. The Outstanding Awards were given to: the establishment of an AI data-based disaster response system for underpass flooding and fire incidents, a unified lost-and-found service for Busan public transportation users, and a road survey and AI analysis system mounted on public transportation. The Encouragement Awards went to proposals such as revitalizing bicycle tours along the lower Nakdong River, the "Cool and Clean Busan" project utilizing reclaimed wastewater, and the "Busan Happy Map," an integrated platform for citizen convenience based on public data.
The city also selected institutional awards based on participation and performance in the contest. The top institutional award went to Busan Transportation Corporation, while Busan Economic Promotion Agency and Busan Global City Foundation received excellence awards.
The awards for the Grand Prize and Excellence Award winners were presented at the "City-Public Institution Communication and Empathy Workshop" held on December 19. The city plans to conduct follow-up reviews to ensure that the ideas generated from this contest are implemented as actual policies.
Kim Kyungtae, Director of Planning and Coordination at the city, emphasized, "We will actively pursue the implementation of these discovered ideas as policies," adding, "We will continue to reflect the suggestions of employees working in the field in our municipal administration."
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