Suwon to Focus on Jobs and Welfare in 2020 While Preparing for Future Innovation

[Suwon Ilbo = Reporter Seo Dong-young] Suwon City is promoting major tasks with the goals of prosperous economy, dreaming future, and enjoying welfare to complete 'Greater Suwon Centered on People' as it enters the new year of the Year of the Rat.

The city is pursuing selective concentration on jobs and welfare to overcome financial crisis while sparing no investment for the future and seeking efficient change.

Accordingly, the city held the 2020 Work Report Meeting on the morning of the 30th at the city hall conference room with senior civil servants, leaders of cooperative organizations, and representatives of governance organizations including the Good Governance Committee, sharing major tasks for next year and exchanging various opinions.

The following are the major tasks to be promoted next year:

▲ Selective Concentration on Jobs and Welfare

The city has set a goal to create 34,000 jobs next year.

Twenty-eight departments will discover Suwon-type new-job public job projects and customized job projects for vulnerable groups including youth, women, and middle-aged workers. Additionally, through the startup support center, the city plans to spare no support for entrepreneurs to succeed.

For circular regional economy, the city will issue over 40 billion won in Suwon Pay and strengthen self-reliance through Suwon Station commercial district revitalization projects and specialized and modernized projects for traditional markets.

Also, the establishment of the second logistics center of Suwon Small and Medium Distribution will be pushed forward in earnest, and completion by the end of the year is expected to help improve sales and strengthen competitiveness for small merchants.

In particular, next year is expected to be the inaugural year for establishing Suwon-type welfare system. The city is in the process of newly establishing the On-Suwon Welfare Foundation through processes such as research to respond to rapidly changing welfare environment.

Furthermore, the city will conduct a comprehensive survey of middle-aged single-person households to establish a support system for managing deaths by solitude using regional safety nets, and customized elderly care services will be provided by dividing into 10 zones with specialized services.

The new construction of Suwon Paldalpo Police Station and the creation of Suwon Arboretum will be concentrated on, and landmark creation using cultural assets including the second phase restoration project of Hwaseong Haengung and the creation of a Korean traditional house experience village will continue.

▲ To Suwon as an Innovation Growth City for the Future

As efforts for Suwon's future, residential environment improvement projects that regenerate the declining original downtown by incorporating the value of people and regions will be in full swing in Haenggung-dong, Gyeonggi Provincial Government, Maesan-dong, Yeonmu-dong, and Seryul 2-dong. Additionally, urban development projects on former public institution relocation sites such as Imok District, Mangpo District, and Hyohaeng District will proceed.

The Asia-Pacific Environmental Ministers Forum scheduled for September is expected to raise the status of Suwon as an environmental city and serve as an opportunity to confirm the possibility of the city as a MICE industry hub.

Traffic environment will also improve. The Suwon Outer Ring (Northern) Road is scheduled to be completed in September, and measures to improve traffic congestion in the Gwanggyo District will be implemented.

The Suin Line double-track electric railway will open in August, and with the Shin-Suwon Line, KTX direct connection project from Suwon, Shin-Bundang Line Gwanggyo-Homaesilroute construction, and Seoul Capital Area Rapid Transit Line C (Yangju-Suwon) carrying out detailed design and basic planning, the railway network will become even denser.

▲ Refresh Through Financial Stabilization and Administrative Efficiency

The city's key theme as it enters the Year of the Rat is 'refresh'. The willingness to fundamentally review the financial crisis and establish a foundation for sound fiscal management appeared as the first item in the work report.

The city's policy is to operate a financial stabilization fund, strengthen preliminary review of local finance investment projects, and improve the performance evaluation system for local subsidies to strengthen accountability. Additionally, one-time events among performances or festivals will be consolidated, and organizational diagnosis of 13 cooperative organizations including Suwon Urban Corporation and improvement of 109 private outsourcing affairs will be promoted. To enhance fiscal efficiency, the city will strengthen organizational competitiveness and redesign the organization by designing administrative organization models that can be operated in a resident-proximity manner.

In particular, to keep the engine running toward 'Suwon Special Metropolitan City', which can be said to be the core of local autonomy and decentralization, the city plans to prioritize empathetic policies such as network building and discussions. For citizen cooperation, the city will concentrate administrative power so that autonomy permeates citizens' lives including digital administrative systems and governance systems for citizen cooperation, trial neighborhoods for resident autonomous councils, and activation of resident-led village communities.

Mayor Yeom Tae-young of Suwon said, "2020 will be a year in which Suwon's 10-year run as a 'Human City' comes to an end," and added, "I will correct the financial framework first and pursue city administration to overcome the crisis facing the era of declining population."

He continued, "Facing the Year of the Rat, public organizations must accelerate change for flexible and agile organizational operations and autonomous organizational culture," and emphasized, "Let us discover ideas to increase citizen convenience and prepare without fail for major pending issues such as establishing urban plans and attracting MICE industries."