Gwangju City, first launch of ‘Dae-ja-bo city’ project

Sharing vision and goals at the first dedicated team meeting

The project to create ‘Gwangju, a city centered on public transportation, bicycles, and pedestrians’ has taken its first step.

Gwangju City announced on the 6th that it had formed a dedicated organization (TF) to successfully promote the ‘Large, Sub-City, Gwangju’ project and held its first meeting in a small conference room at City Hall on the 5th. This meeting was presided over by Mayor Go Gwang-wan and attended by about 20 people, including related offices and directors, autonomous districts and agency officials, to share the vision and goals of ‘Gwangju, a large, self-reliant city,’ and discuss implementation strategies.

Policy Advisor Jeong Seok (Professor, University of Seoul) presented a vision for building a citizen-centered transportation system and moving toward a pedestrian-centered city in a special lecture that day.

The Gwangju Strategy Promotion Team introduced the basic plan for a large, independent, and sub-urban city and the citizen empathy project, and explained various ways to set policy direction and engage citizens. As the formation of citizen consensus is important in the conversion of public, private, and secondary transportation systems, the ‘Citizen Empathy Policy Action Plan 3+’ connects demonstration, communication, and participation such as ▲creation of demonstration space ▲public debate ▲citizens’ own planning and implementation ▲people-centered traffic flow. We plan to actively pursue ‘1’.

To this end, the city will hold a citizen deliberation and joint implementation agreement ceremony for the ‘large, self-reliant city of Gwangju’ created by citizens at the Citizens’ Hall on the first floor of City Hall on the 9th. At the agreement ceremony, about 100 members of the Citizen Action Group will write a ‘Citizen Proposal’ and ‘Gwangju Citizens’ Pledge’ through a deliberation process and declare joint implementation.

The city will also be holding the ‘Large, Sub-, and Foot-Commuting Challenge’ in November, which involves commuting to and from work using public transportation, bicycles, and walking. Key figures and public officials in Gwangju City plan to encourage citizen participation through the challenge. The challenge is carried out in a relay format, with key figures, starting with Mayor Kang Ki-jeong, posting verification photos on social networking services (SNS).

Additionally, the Integrated Airport Transportation Authority presented specific plans for transportation innovation. We plan to promote a major transition to a pedestrian-oriented transportation system through the ‘Urban Railroad Line 2 Blue Road’ project.

The Gwangju Research Institute announced a research plan for the basic concept of ‘Gwangju, a large, small, and secondary city’ and presented a long-term direction. In addition, the Seo-gu Office introduced the ‘Pungam-dong Communication Theme Road’ as a successful car-free street example and discussed the possibility of expanding car-free streets in the future.

At the meeting, each organization shared specific cooperation plans and emphasized the importance of establishing a systematic cooperation system to implement large, independent, and secondary cities.

Administrative Mayor Go Gwang-wan said, “The ‘Gwangju City Gwangju’ project will go beyond improving the transportation system and become an important turning point for citizen participation and sustainable urban development.” He added, “Through this meeting, we will strengthen cooperation between institutions.” “We will do our best together with the citizens to ensure that the transition to a large, small, and large city is successfully realized,” he said.

<ⓒ투자가를 위한 경제콘텐츠 플랫폼, 아시아경제(www.asiae.co.kr) 무단전재 배포금지>