Gov. Lee Jae-myung Marks Second Anniversary of Inauguration Next Month: "Promises to Provincial Residents Fulfilled This Way"

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Governor Lee Jae-myung of Gyeonggi Province marks his second anniversary of inauguration next month.

Gyeonggi Province, which has adopted ‘fairness, peace, welfare’ as the core values of the seventh civilian administration and has championed a ‘new Gyeonggi,’ began operations at a disaster situation room in preparation for typhoons on the governor’s first day instead of holding a grand inauguration ceremony. At that time, Governor Lee promised through his inauguration speech to "create a Gyeonggi Province where fairness lives and breathes." As the first half of his term ends and the second half begins, this article examines the major achievements of Gyeonggi Province over the past two years, taking the governor’s inauguration speech as a starting point to see how promises to provincial residents have been realized.

■ Fair Gyeonggi Province
The most important value of provincial governance that Governor Lee emphasized in his inauguration speech was ‘fairness.’ Governor Lee promised to create a Gyeonggi Province where opportunities are equal for all, fair competition is guaranteed, and proportionate compensation is ensured for contributions made, and many of the province’s policies have been formulated and implemented according to this principle.

The project that made the deepest impression on provincial residents in the fairness sector is the cleanup of illegal facilities in streams and valleys and the clean stream return to residents project, which Gyeonggi Province carried out nationwide for the first time. From June last year through the end of May this year, the province, in collaboration with 25 cities and counties, identified 1,437 illegal facilities in 187 streams, and completed demolition of all except 51 locations with resident occupants and 3 locations under stay orders. This was fair administrative enforcement against unfair and illegal acts that had been tolerated for decades. As streams and valleys returned to their original state, more provincial residents are now visiting famous valleys in Gapyeong and Yeoncheon. Following the valley initiative, the province recently has been pursuing clean Gyeonggi waters through nationwide-first introduction of cleaning boats, crackdowns on unlicensed fishing, and enforcement against illegal parasol operations.

To realize tax justice, Gyeonggi Province introduced a debt management unit nationwide for the first time. In 2019, the debt management unit, composed of 1,262 personnel, tracked down tax delinquents totaling over one million individuals, conducted factual investigations, collected 79.5 billion won in delinquent taxes, and connected 1,421 livelihood-based delinquent taxpayers who could not afford to pay taxes to welfare services. This year, 2,303 debt management unit personnel have been hired and are active.

Public construction cost disclosure and elimination of subcontracting malpractices to foster fair construction culture also attracted attention. The province disclosed public construction costs for 291 construction projects worth 100 million won or more (208 by Gyeonggi Province and 83 by Gyeonggi City Corporation) to promote the formation of reasonable construction prices. Additionally, the province created a fair construction environment through a "payment confirmation system" allowing anyone to directly confirm wages and subcontracting payments to prevent unpaid wages, an "appropriate wage system" ensuring all public construction workers receive wages above market rates, and intensive crackdowns on paper companies.
Measures to create fair labor environments also garnered attention, including the establishment of rest areas for public institution cleaning workers, the mandatory creation of rest facilities for apartment security guards and cleaners through revised housing construction standards, and the creation of rest stops for mobile workers such as delivery workers.

Recently, as delivery app companies changed their commission structures and monopoly issues emerged, the province proceeded with developing a public delivery app to establish fair market competition. The public delivery app being developed by Gyeonggi Province Company is expected to be unveiled in the second half of this year after app development, merchant recruitment, and pilot operations.

Fairness in Gyeonggi Province has also been realized in various other fields, including ▲significant expansion of the Gyeonggi Provincial Special Judicial Police Unit organization (from 1 division 7 teams 101 personnel to 2 divisions 20 teams 193 personnel) to expand enforcement scope against private lending and real estate ▲detection of 1,562 false real estate transaction reports and prevention of scheme real estate through land transaction permit designation ▲mandatory open recruitment system for building artwork selection.

■ Gyeonggi Province Guaranteeing Korea’s Highest Quality of Life
Governor Lee pledged in his inauguration speech to create a Gyeonggi Province where everyone wants to move to through welfare expansion and regional economic revitalization. This pledge proved its worth in the face of the unprecedented crisis of COVID-19 through preemptive quarantine measures and disaster basic income policy.

The province launched an emergency task force for COVID-19 quarantine measures on January 20, when the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Gyeonggi Province was reported, and began full-scale quarantine activities. Subsequently, the province received nationwide attention through preemptive and differentiated quarantine activities, including recommending a ban on hoarding masks, conducting forced investigations into Shincheonji, issuing the first administrative orders to religious facilities, expanding epidemiological investigation officials, and installing drive-through screening clinics.

In COVID-19 economic quarantine policy, the Gyeonggi Province disaster basic income garnered the most attention. The Gyeonggi Province disaster basic income, which provided 100,000 won per person to all Gyeonggi Province residents regardless of income and age, led to the government’s emergency disaster support funds. As local economic recovery effects became apparent through various credit card company statistics and surveys following the disaster basic income payment, ‘basic income’ became an important agenda that would determine the future of our society regardless of party affiliation. Governor Lee, who recommended a second disaster support fund payment to the government, recently stated, "Introducing basic income is unavoidable. We must start within possible ranges, observe the effects, and gradually expand it," further accelerating public discussion on basic income.

Additionally, the province is overcoming the COVID-19 crisis through multi-faceted economic measures including support for small loans to those with extremely low credit ratings, emergency welfare for crisis-stricken residents supporting livelihood expenses for workers whose income decreased or was lost due to COVID-19, and payment of sick leave income compensation to vulnerable workers who received COVID-19 diagnostic tests.

Behind the success of the Gyeonggi Province disaster basic income is the basic infrastructure of local currency, which Governor Lee pushed forward from the beginning of his tenure. By setting an expiration date on basic income and providing it through local currency, immediate local economic revitalization effects were generated. Gyeonggi Province achieved the goal of issuing local currency province-wide by April last year, just over nine months after first introducing local currency in August 2018 to increase small business owners’ and alleyway businesses’ sales and revitalize the regional economy. Local currency totaling 561.2 billion won was issued in 2019, and the province plans to issue 1.2567 trillion won this year while maintaining higher discount and purchase rates. In local currency satisfaction surveys, residents gave a positive evaluation of 68%, while merchant members gave 63%.

The province also unveiled diverse and differentiated welfare policies unique to Gyeonggi Province. Birth support families receive 500,000 won per person in postpartum care expenses, and 585,000 children using all childcare centers and community children’s centers throughout the province are supplied with fresh locally produced fruits through the end of this year. The province operates a dental physician program providing 40,000 won worth of oral health screening and treatment services to fourth-grade elementary school students. Additionally, it provided tuition-free uniforms to middle-grade alternative education institution freshmen, a first among metropolitan local governments, in addition to middle and high school students. For young people, the province implemented youth basic income providing 1 million won annually to 24-year-olds, youth interview allowances, and military service Gyeonggi youth injury insurance enrollment support to guarantee social basic rights.

Furthermore, the province attracted the Yongin semiconductor cluster industrial complex, resulting in 122 trillion won investments over 10 years and direct employment of over 17,000 people. The province also attracted the world’s largest artificial surfing park to Turtle Island in Siheung, with construction underway. When construction is completed in 2023, approximately 1,400 direct jobs will be created and the location is expected to become a tourist destination attracting 2 million annual visitors. Additionally, in July last year regarding Japan’s retaliatory export restrictions, the province established emergency response measures including a reporting center for affected companies and financial support for parts localization, and urgently allocated 32.6 billion won to the supplementary budget for materials and parts industry promotion (’19 3rd supplementary budget). Last year, the province created 117,163 Gyeonggi-style public jobs across 465 projects for socially disadvantaged groups and launched the Gyeonggi Province Employment Response Headquarters as a control tower for Gyeonggi Province employment policy to realize "better jobs and abundant new Gyeonggi."

■ Gyeonggi Province Where Residents’ Right to Survival and Stable Living Are Institutionally Guaranteed
One of the key policies Governor Lee emphasized in his inauguration speech was guaranteeing residents’ survival rights and stable living—operating room CCTV installation. Installed first at Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Anseong Hospital in October 2018 to prevent human rights violations such as verbal abuse and violence in operating rooms and to prevent medical accidents, the operating room CCTV expanded to all Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Centers in May 2019 and this year was further expanded to the neonatal unit of Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center Pocheon Hospital and Gyeonggi Yeoju Public Postpartum Care Center. From May last year through May this year, a total of 3,727 surgeries were performed, of which 2,492 cases, equivalent to 66.8%, were recorded with guardian consent.

In August 2019, a 24-hour emergency medical-exclusive "Doctor Helicopter" was introduced nationwide for the first time. The province has dispatched six rescue and emergency personnel from Gyeonggi Provincial Fire and Disaster Headquarters to Ajou University Hospital to perform their duties. Since launching operations in August last year, a total of 53 emergency responses, including 17 at night, have been conducted, saving 51 precious lives.

The Gyeonggi Happiness Village Management Office, which provides public services like apartment management offices to residents in housing areas with deteriorated environments, had been established in 42 locations across 28 cities and counties in Gyeonggi Province as of the end of May. Since launching a pilot program in November 2018, the office has provided over 150,000 life-oriented public services addressing the living inconveniences of vulnerable groups, such as lending tools and replacing light bulbs, and has created 420 public jobs.

Additionally, the province supported the installation of simple sprinklers in 254 goshiwon (semi-basement rooms) and single-alarm smoke detectors in 1,884 locations, and installed 2,347 security CCTVs at 9,219 locations and replaced 3,846 low-resolution CCTVs for safe school environments and crime prevention.

■ Model Gyeonggi Province for Korean Peninsula Peace, Participation and Self-governance, and Decentralization
Governor Lee, who pledged to lead the way toward an era of Korean Peninsula peace and new prosperity, made many efforts to improve inter-Korean relations, including introducing a peace vice-governor system dedicated to inter-Korean cooperation. As a result, in 2018, a high-level North Korean delegation including Ri Jong-hyok, vice chairman of the North Korean Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, visited Gyeonggi Province for the first time to attend an International Conference for Peace and Prosperity in Asia-Pacific, visiting the Gyeonggi Agricultural Technology Center and Pangyo Techno Valley. Subsequently, to prepare for an era of inter-Korean peace cooperation, Gyeonggi Province launched a Peace Policy Advisory Committee to support inter-Korean peace policy, the first of its kind among local governments, in March 2019. The province continues humanitarian cooperation, including support for treating North Korean tuberculosis patients and providing flour and seedlings assistance, while working to improve inter-Korean relations. Recently, the province issued administrative orders prohibiting leaflet distribution and designating dangerous zones, viewing large-scale anti-North Korean leaflet distribution as threatening residents’ lives and safety.

As one effort toward autonomy and decentralization, the name change of Seoul Outer Ring Expressway promoted by Governor Lee also achieved success. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport officially announced in June that it would change the name of Seoul Outer Ring Expressway to Metropolitan First Ring Expressway beginning September 1 this year. This was the result of persuading and obtaining consent from 20 basic local governments—14 cities and counties in Gyeonggi Province including Goyang and Paju through which the expressway passes, three districts in Incheon including Bupyeong and Gyeyang, and three districts in Seoul including Songpa and Nowon—starting from the beginning of his term.

Governor Lee, who promised that the new Gyeonggi Province will see all 31 cities and counties develop distinctively and harmoniously with provincial residents participating as protagonists in provincial governance, particularly expanded support to northern Gyeonggi Province during the first half of his term by presenting special compensation for special sacrifice.

Governor Lee supported having the Line 7 Dobongsan-Pocheon Extension Project (Okjeong-Pocheon) included as a pre-feasibility exemption target project in 2018, and worked to improve infrastructure in the northeastern region of Gyeonggi through developing the Ilsan and Yangju Techno Valley as innovation growth bases in northern Gyeonggi, joining forces with Pocheon City to attract a pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant worth 1 trillion won, and establishing regulation-linked support policies.

Additionally, the province decided to relocate eight public institutions—Gyeonggi Tourism Organization, Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, Gyeonggi Province Lifelong Education Promotion Institute, Gyeonggi Province Employment Foundation, Gyeonggi Provincial Market and Commercial District Promotion Corporation, Gyeonggi Province Social Service Agency, Gyeonggi Transportation Corporation, and Gyeonggi Environment and Energy Promotion Agency—to northern Gyeonggi Province, putting Gyeonggi Province’s balanced development plan on the right track.

Meanwhile, Governor Lee received an SA grade, the highest rating, in the Korea Manifesto Practice Association evaluation and was selected for two consecutive years as the municipal leader best implementing pledge fulfillment.