New Year's Address Mayor Jung Jang-seon of Pyeongtaek City

New Year's Address

Respected 510,000 citizens of Pyeongtaek,

and 2,100 civil servants!

We welcome a hopeful new year of Gyeongja (庚子).

I hope that in this year of Gyeongja, which symbolizes abundance and hope, you will achieve all your aspirations and your homes will be filled with love and happiness.

Furthermore, I extend my gratitude to all citizens who worked together to advance our city one step further despite social changes and difficult economic conditions over the past year, and to all civil servants who have dedicated themselves to citizen happiness.

Respected 510,000 citizens of Pyeongtaek!

The past year was a time we spent breathlessly envisioning the future of Pyeongtaek, which has grown into a major city with a population of over 500,000, and creating a new Pyeongtaek.

We have focused on citizen-centered city administration, incorporating the diverse voices of citizens seeking change and new development, dedicating ourselves to creating a Pyeongtaek where all citizens enjoy equal happiness and securing sustainable future growth momentum.

The Pyeongtaek Lake tourist district and Brain City project, long-standing wishes of the region, are proceeding normally. We have worked to improve pleasant and convenient living environments by creating urban forests to address fine dust, designating an air quality management zone around Pyeongtaek Port, operating public-type taxis for transportation convenience, expanding parking facilities, and adjusting bus routes.

Additionally, we are establishing welfare facilities such as the Western Welfare Town and Western Indoor Gymnasium, as well as themed parks. We are also dedicating ourselves to balanced regional development by securing 45.9 billion won in national funds through urban regeneration new deal projects by region.

Moreover, through a Pyeongtaek Future Development Strategy Forum, we have jointly designed the future of Pyeongtaek with a population of 500,000, and developed a Pyeongtaek-style cooperation model for citizen-centered city administration and problem-solving, establishing a system to gather diverse citizen opinions at all stages of policy proposal, decision-making, implementation, and evaluation.

This year is expected to be very challenging due to uncertainties such as U.S.-China trade disputes, Japanese export restrictions, and protectionism, as well as sluggish exports and investment. Our city is preparing development strategies to respond proactively to these changes of the times.

Through unwavering city administration and future development strategies, our city will successfully complete the projects promised to citizens, creating a more prosperous and healthy Pyeongtaek—a premium city that everyone wants to visit.

The mayor and 2,100 civil servants pledge our best efforts to create a beautiful and livable Pyeongtaek that citizens dream of. I will now briefly outline the major policy directions for this year by sector.

First, we will make every effort to restructure industry into a new advanced state and activate the economy.

First, upgrading industrial structure.

Based on research for establishing a basic plan for industrial structure advancement to foster future industries, proposed in December of last year, we will establish a comprehensive implementation plan for industry by sector at the beginning of the year.

We will accelerate infrastructure development and attract related companies by subdividing into hydrogen industry, semiconductor industry, automobile industry, and defense industry, creating specialized zones and related industrial belts.

Furthermore, to strengthen global competitiveness, we will seek ways to promote export structure advancement and foreign direct investment activation, and we will review attracting higher education institutions related to strategic industries and establishing an industrial promotion institute to strengthen links between regional industries and educational institutions.

We will also support Samsung Electronics' Pyeongtaek plant expansion plan to proceed smoothly and develop the world's largest semiconductor cluster by creating a large-scale supplier complex.

In December of last year, our city was uniquely selected nationwide in the hydrogen production facility competition held by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. We will invest a total of 21 billion won, including 4.9 billion won in national funds, to establish hydrogen production facilities by 2021, lead hydrogen supply for hydrogen electric vehicles, and develop our city into a core hub for hydrogen production and related industries in South Korea.

Pyeongtaek Port, South Korea's largest automobile import-export port, will be cultivated as a core cluster that develops related industries by creating an automobile cluster in neighboring areas and provides quality jobs to young people.

Substantial expansion of service and tourism industries.

Along with the Pyeongtaek Lake tourist district, we will create a large-scale Pyeongtaek Port culture and tourism complex in the area from Pyeongtaek Lake to Pyeongtaek Port, and substantially expand service and tourism industries including water-friendly space projects on the Jinwi and Anseong two-river areas and the creation of a young cultural district around the U.S. military bases K6 and K55.

Additionally, we will enact relevant ordinances to promote the tourism industry including hotels and make all efforts to provide diverse leisure and culture to citizens and attract tourists through innovation and change in tourism service industries.

We will work to revitalize the local economy.

To create an environment conducive to business, we will actively resolve corporate difficulties and devote full efforts to reinforcing SME capabilities and promoting mutual growth support projects.

We will ensure expanded participation of local companies in various development projects implemented in Pyeongtaek and provide job opportunities to local residents.

Additionally, by operating an electronic payment system for Pyeongtaek Love gift certificates, we will increase citizens' usage rate of gift certificates and contribute to local economic revitalization through customized support for small business owners and traditional markets.

We will make our best efforts to create sustainable agricultural ecosystem environment and secure agricultural competitiveness.

Agriculture is an important life industry that guarantees our future.

Pyeongtaek's agriculture will improve its structure amid the wave of new changes and develop into a high-value-added industry that incorporates production, distribution, culture, and experience.

First, we will diversify sales channels by supplying excellent agricultural and special products produced in the region to U.S. military bases and expanding items supplied to school meals, and will consult with major corporations in the city to establish Pyeongtaek agricultural product sales outlets.

We will strengthen agricultural competitiveness by establishing a Pyeongtaek-type local food distribution system with guaranteed stability at the Local Food Comprehensive Center scheduled to operate this year, and preparing a sustainable food plan.

We will expand agricultural machinery supply and rental services to reduce management costs and improve agricultural productivity.

Additionally, we will increase farm household income through agricultural product processing support centers and nurture startup farmers, and expand agricultural experience tourism centered on an agricultural ecology center to provide diverse attractions to citizens.

Second, we will create a clean and green city, a city with refined culture, and a safe city.

We will create a clean and green urban environment.

The area around Pyeongtaek Port has been designated as a port air quality management zone, requiring ships navigating in this area to use ship fuel with 0.5% sulfur content. This year, to improve air quality, we will install 6 ship shore power supply systems (AMP) with national funds, and Pyeongtaek Western Thermal Power Plant will convert 4 fuel oil power units to LNG power units by February of this year, four years ahead of schedule.

Additionally, we will spare no effort in responding to fine dust through the "Gyeonggi and Chungcheongnam Fine Dust Joint Consultation Council" comprising 12 cities and counties in Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces that our city has led in organizing.

Furthermore, we will establish a comprehensive water management plan for rivers flowing through Pyeongtaek, including Pyeongtaek Lake, Anseong Stream, Jinwi Stream, Tongbok Stream, and Seojeong Stream, to return clean water to citizens.

To this end, we will establish a cooperation system with the Ministry of Environment, Gyeonggi Province, and neighboring cities and promote cooperative projects.

The Pyeongtaek City Wind Corridor Forest Creation Project, uniquely selected in Gyeonggi Province, is a government competition project. We plan to complete the construction by 2021 by investing 20 billion won in total, including 10 billion won in national funds.

Together with this, we will prepare a long-term greenway plan to increase the greenspace ratio (currently the lowest at 18% compared to the national average of 63%).

To provide relief for citizens who have suffered from military aircraft noise for decades, as the chairperson city of the local government council for enacting a military noise law, we led the enactment of a military noise law, which passed the National Assembly in October of last year.

We will cooperate with other cities to ensure that effective compensation and support follow.

We will create a city of refined culture and art.

We will establish the Pyeongtaek Cultural Foundation by the first half of this year to activate local culture and support local artists, and we plan to provide citizens with high-quality programs, performances, and diverse cultural and arts experience opportunities.

The Peace Art Hall, Pyeongtaek Museum, and Anjeong-ri Artist Square will be managed to proceed with groundbreaking and completion according to construction schedules without delay.

As we enter the full-scale era of the U.S. Forces Korea in Pyeongtaek, we will strengthen Korean-American friendship exchange and build a foundation for coexistence with the U.S. military and citizens.

We will operate the Pyeongtaek-U.S. Forces Friendship Day and open an America Corner in the early part of the year where we can understand and share each other's cultures.

Additionally, we plan to create the area around the U.S. military base as a specialized street of young culture, regularly operate Korean-American harmony festivals, and cultivate them as not only communication spaces between Korean and American peoples but also popular destinations that many people enjoy visiting.

Furthermore, we will expand settlement support projects for growing multicultural families and diversify intercultural exchange programs to enhance our status as a global city.

We will strengthen policies that protect citizens' safety in daily life.

Pyeongtaek City, with significant population inflow due to various development projects, is a region with high crime rates and traffic accident rates, and measures against this are urgent.

In March of last year, our city held an International Safe City certification ceremony and has been making many efforts to reduce accidents and injuries,

this year we will closely cooperate with the police and related agencies to conduct in-depth analysis of the causes of crimes and traffic accidents and develop measures that can fundamentally reduce crimes and accidents.

Additionally, we will further expand the Daily Civil Complaint SOS Mobile Response Team, which has received good responses from citizens, to promptly resolve citizen inconveniences.

Third, we will implement a warm welfare city that considers socially vulnerable groups and resonates with citizens.

We will ensure that all citizens can enjoy healthy and happy lives by expanding customized facilities to meet regional welfare needs and building a tight social safety net, realizing visiting welfare services such as identifying families in crisis and expanding neighbor care initiatives.

Additionally, we will promote joining the international network of age-friendly cities in the first half of this year in preparation for an aging society, and create urban space design and social systems that consider both the elderly and socially vulnerable groups.

We will create a social environment where women can live with peace of mind and expand family-customized services for work-life balance, including expanding public childcare services through national and public daycare centers and establishing child care systems.

We will also expand employment and social participation opportunities for people with disabilities to guarantee their income and independent living, and will form youth networks and expand support measures to address youth issues.

Through employment competency enhancement and re-employment programs for all sectors seeking employment, and regional and industry-customized job creation projects, we will provide many quality jobs.

Fourth, we will accelerate regional balanced development and public transportation improvements.

Regional balanced development is a prerequisite and priority task for Pyeongtaek's development.

We will promote the balanced development plans for the northern, western, and Pungseong regions announced last year without delay to achieve genuine balanced development and integration among regions and strengthen the foundation for coexistence.

Four urban regeneration projects—in Anjeong, Sinpyeong, Saedeul, and Sinjang areas—were selected in the urban regeneration national competition project that our city has prioritized, while Poseung-eup was selected for the rural central revitalization project and Hyeondeok-myeon's Kwangwan Port was selected for the Fishing Village New Deal 300 project, establishing foundations for stable balanced development of the original city center, new city, and rural areas.

The selected projects will be promoted step by step with residents to achieve satisfactory results.

We will make a breakthrough improvement to public transportation in the near future.

Transportation issues are common problems for cities with mixed urban and rural characteristics and are not easy to solve, but we will make all efforts going forward from the perspective of mobility welfare.

To provide customer-focused customized services to citizens in transit-underserved areas, we are considering expanding public-type taxi operations and comprehensively reorganizing the public transportation system.

First, we will proactively establish a convenient public transportation system for citizens by expanding urban bus routes and establishing new downtown circulation buses.

In particular, we will continuously develop transportation environment improvement measures to resolve the relative sense of exclusion among citizens with inconvenient transportation in the western and rural areas.

We will also make every effort to extend the GTX line to Pyeongtaek.

Fifth, we will work to innovate education and strengthen resident autonomy capabilities.

We will strengthen public education and create a safe educational environment through educational innovation.

We will promote various education support projects suited to the Pyeongtaek Education Innovation Zone and dedicate ourselves to fostering future creative talent through the Creative Learning Center, building a regional education community where schools, villages, and local residents participate and communicate together.

Additionally, while steadily advancing work to create a UNICEF child-friendly city, we will support diverse programs including capacity building, healing, and clubs that youth hope for, and will expand the operation of career guidance and academic fairs considering students' aptitudes.

We will actively participate in school facility complexification utilized together with citizens to maximize the use of public facilities and will not spare support for qualitative improvement of the educational environment.

We will strengthen residents' capacity to autonomously solve regional issues.

We will establish resident cooperation systems where citizens take the lead in proposing, deciding, implementing, and evaluating policies, and will actively support the successful implementation of resident autonomous councils being piloted this year.

Additionally, we will activate the operation of living-area-focused happy village management offices that support resident welfare and safety, and prepare improvement measures for the resident participation budget system to achieve effective resource allocation reflecting resident administrative needs while enhancing transparency, accountability, and integrity.

Sixth, we will envision Pyeongtaek's new future and achieve trustworthy administrative innovation.

We will establish a long-term development plan for Pyeongtaek's new future and establish a Future Innovation Advisory Committee to secure continuity in policy implementation.

Experts and civil servants will jointly research future development strategies and prepare annual and sector-specific development roadmaps.

We will sufficiently gather opinions from external experts and citizens to create unwavering policies and establish implementation plans.

Through Pyeongtaek-style administrative innovation, we will provide groundbreaking administrative services that citizens can feel.

We will discover and practice innovative exemplary cases with high citizen satisfaction such as visiting on-site services and providing resident-friendly key information.

Additionally, we will complete organizational restructuring suited to administrative needs for cities with 500,000 or more populations within this year, transition to a flexible and efficient organization, and radically improve how we work to provide innovative administrative services matching citizens' expectations.

Respected 510,000 citizens of Pyeongtaek!

I have outlined the major policy directions for this year, but through dialogue with citizens and various channels, we will carefully promote large and small projects and policies promised to citizens without negligence.

This year will be an important year in which we must substantiate plans and implement them on the foundation we have prepared.

So that our city can further advance and achieve the ultimate goal of citizen happiness, we will communicate more closely with citizens and serve you.

We ask for your collective strength and support.

Respected 510,000 citizens and Pyeongtaek civil servants!

Just as citizens and civil servants together achieved brilliant development of Pyeongtaek over the past year, let us hold hands and march forward vigorously this year, drawing an even greater development and brighter future together!

While thanking you for your support over the past year,

I wish health and happiness to all citizens and civil servants' families throughout this year.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Morning 2020

Pyeongtaek Mayor Jung Jang-seon