Seoul mayor promotes policies at global cities forum

Social Affairs

Published: 25 Sep. 2023, 17:41 Updated: 25 Sep. 2023, 19:53

Seoul mayor promotes policies at global cities forum

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, center, poses for a photo with the participants of the World Cities Summit Mayors Forum on Sunday during the forum's opening event held at Some Gavit, a floating venue on the Han River in southern Seoul. [YONHAP]

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon on Monday promoted the capital's major policies during the World Cities Summit Mayors Forum, attended by mayors and business leaders from across the world.

“I am glad to discuss measures on how to make sustainable cities [with the participants of the forum] in Seoul, a city that values 'walking with the socially neglected,'” Oh said during his opening speech at the forum held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Jung District, central Seoul.

The mayor shared the results of the city’s latest welfare policies, including the Seoul Learn academic assistance program and the Seoul Safety Income Project.

The Seoul Safety Income Project offers cash supplements every month to individuals who earn below a certain level, with payments graduated according to need.

Seoul Learn offers access to online courses and mentors free of charge to those in need.

A total of 461 participants were accepted to universities through the program in just over a year since it began, according to the city government.

“If at least one person had their life changed through the Seoul Learn program, I believe the city’s budget was used for a valuable purpose,” said Oh.

“The city government will continuously invest to create a ladder for opportunities that could impact people’s lives.”

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, far right, on Monday speaks during the 2023 World Cities Summit Mayors Forum held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Jung District, central Seoul. [NEWS1]

According to the city government, the Seoul Safety Income Project has produced results that set it apart from previous welfare programs by encouraging rather than discouraging beneficiaries to work.

The Seoul city government also said that it is developing an index that can evaluate and measure the city’s performance to reduce polarization and inequality in the capital. The index will be introduced as early as next month.

The forum, which began on Sunday, will run through Tuesday, inviting some 200 mayors, officials from international organizations and business leaders from 50 cities to discuss how to create a good, sustainable city.

The event marks the largest international forum held in the capital since the pandemic. Only winners of the Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize are eligible to host the forum. The city of Seoul won the prize in 2018.

The metropolitan government will hold bilateral talks with nine cities, including Dublin and Ho Chi Minh City. It will also sign a friendly city agreement with the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv.

Mayor Oh on Monday visited the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism and the Seoul Museum of Craft Art in central Seoul with 100 participants as part of the program to discuss blueprints for urban futures.

Oh’s attendance at the forum followed his weeklong visit to North America. During the visit, the mayor unveiled his plan to transform the Jamsil Baseball Stadium into a domed stadium, benchmarking Toronto’s Rogers Centre.

In New York, Oh announced the redevelopment of the outdated Dongseoul Bus Terminal in eastern Seoul into a 40-story multiuse terminal after touring Hudson Yards, a multiuse development above an active train yard.

The city government plans to work with Shinsegae to build an underground bus terminal and Starfield mall on the upper levels.

Benchmarking observatories on skyscrapers in New York such as Summit One Vanderbilt and Hudson Yards’s Edge, the redeveloped terminal will also have an observatory that offers views of the capital's landscape.

The metropolitan government aims to break ground as early as 2025 to redevelop the 36-year-old bus terminal and complete construction by 2028.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]