Suwon Mayor Yeom Tae-young: "We Must Not Shift the Responsibility for Low Birth Rates onto Young People"

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] “We must not shift the responsibility for the low birth rate problem onto young people. We must build a society where people can raise children without burden once they have them.”

Suwon Mayor Yeom Tae-young appeared as a panelist at the Policy Talk Show of the ‘2019 Suwon Policy Fair,’ held on the 5th at the Convention Hall of the Suwon Convention Center.

Mayor Yeom Tae-young emphasized, “The low birth rate problem is something our society must solve together,” and “society must actively step up to solve issues such as childcare and housing (for multi-child households).”

Held under the slogan ‘Knock Knock Knock, the Door of Youth Opens,’ the Suwon Policy Fair was conducted through roundtable discussions, policy presentations, and policy talk shows, where the city's policies were introduced to citizens and citizens could freely propose the policies they wanted. Policy cafes and policy booths were also operated.

At the Policy Talk Show, Mayor Yeom Tae-young and comedian Jung Jong-chul (CEO of Okjubu Cutting Board) made sandwiches together with young people while discussing topics such as youth policy, the low birth rate problem, and the sharing economy.

Mayor Yeom Tae-young said, “The city is carrying out youth support projects centered on the Youth Policy Office and the Youth Support Center,” adding, “We are listening to the voices of young people and creating youth policy accordingly.”

In the ‘200-Person Roundtable Discussion,’ about 190 participants—including citizens, experts, and public officials, ranging from young people in their 20s to seniors in their 70s—took part in a discussion on the theme ‘Policy Proposals for the Suwon City of 2020 That We Dream Of.’ Participants, seated at 21 roundtables, looked back on the past nine years of Suwon City's governance (public-private cooperation) and explored the direction to move forward.

Participants also voted on the policy proposals raised during the discussion to determine policy priorities.

As for ‘new cooperative governance policies needed by Suwon City,’ 28.3% chose ‘the public and government solving everyday problems together,’ followed by ‘establishing a unified communication channel for gathering citizens' opinions and sharing problems’ (16.9%), ‘strengthening cooperative governance policies at the neighborhood (dong) level’ (15%), ‘establishing policies to expand jobs through cooperative governance’ (12.2%), ‘cooperative governance education starting from adolescence’ (11.3%), and ‘forming and operating a grand compromise body to solve social problems’ (10.3%).

As for ‘areas to improve in existing cooperative governance policies,’ ‘improving the continuity of similar and overlapping policies and projects’ was the most cited at 21.6%, followed by ‘establishing a forum for public-private communication’ (19.8%), ‘establishing methods to verify project effectiveness’ (17.1%), ‘autonomy in budget use and expanded support’ (11.7%), and ‘continuous education and promotion on cooperative governance’ (10.8%).

The policies selected as priorities in the discussion will be reviewed and reflected in Suwon City's ‘Suwon City Cooperative Governance Basic Plan’ next year, and will be actively promoted.

A ‘Policy Cafe,’ where submitting a policy proposal was exchanged for coffee, and a policy promotion booth introducing Suwon City's policies were also operated, drawing the attention of citizens.

A city official said, “We will gather the citizens' opinions raised at the Policy Fair and actively reflect them in next year's city policies.”