▲ Namyangju City / Mayor Cho Kwang-han

Taking the office of Namyangju City 13 months ago, the mayor Cho Kwang-han has focused on laying the foundation for the city to be turned into an economic and cultural and self-sufficient city by 2030 and the hub of the northeast of the capital region by 2050. For this, Cho abolished ‘order-action’ communication system and introduced instead ‘two-way communication’. He removed all tables and chairs in his mayor’s room for a stand-up meeting with 1 hour limited meeting time in order to bring more participatory and creative results. Also, he started to run J.Care (a welfare system inspired by Korean scholar Jeong Yak-yong) with which he has set up a role model for many local governments to build welfare programs. 

Wangsook new town
Building Wangsook new town is a large scale building project of the city brining up-to-date traffic systems, housing and cultural facilities and subsequent job creation. 53,000 households are to be supplied and a GTX-B station with a self-sufficient surrounding commercial complex is to be created. Wangsook new town is to be provided tax incentives for smart grid, ESS, IT, IoT, electronic and hydrogen vehicles and R&D. Cheap rent is also provided for ventures and startups setting up business within the town. The city is expecting that the new town will create around 200,000 jobs, brining a vibration to the city’s economy, and various cultural streets and zones are also to be created alongside. Above all, the new town is expected to solve the prolonged traffic issues in the city by 90%. 

Turning old to new
Cho tours every nook and corner of the city even on weekends in order not to miss any important detail for improvement and development. As part of this effort, he has been presiding over the Namyangju Talk for 24 times designed to abolish any factors including regulations that prevent development of the city. Also part of this effort, Cho introduced the 3.3.3 Core Human Resources Training to make communication with staff easier and directional as well as various staff promotional programs such as training overseas and history and cultural activities.

Improvement for quality of life
Cho invited 53 organizations to form an environment protection group and started improving streams and books within the city. The stream and brook task force team of the group in particular is focusing on any illegal use or destruction of the forests and mountains in the city so that all citizens can enjoy the natural environment as it. The city also has revised the ordinance for forest development by decreasing the development permit angles to 18 degree from 22 degree; ground level to 98ft from 164ft. In addition, the texts regarding the news and information of the city policies and events are being sent to 200,000 citizens once every two weeks so that not a single citizen should miss any possible benefit they can get. 

History and culture promotion
Joining hands with LH, Namyangju City secured 10 billion won budget to turn the Geumgok and Yangjeong areas into history and cultural parks, streets and facilities. A good example is the long time disused Mokhwa Wedding Hall which the city recently has bought to turn it into a history museum. 

J.Care
J.Care aka Jeong Yak-yong Care is a welfare program of the city introduced on 1st May 2019. The program is designed to embrace all ages and walks of citizens from infant and children to youth and elderly. What makes it outstanding is that it not only about providing support and subsidy but running job training so that people can be independent income-wise especially senior citizens. In accordance with the central government’s policy to raise birth rate, the city is planning to increase the number of nurseries from 50 to 100 alongside 28 care centers; also the number of youth centers from 1 to 4 and the 2 new repairs centers for disabled. In May 2019, Namyangju City was designated as a welfare and senior citizen-friendly city.