Osan City and Gyeonggi Tourism Organization Sign Cooperation Agreement for Cultural City Designation

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Osan City signed a cooperation agreement with the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization on the 17th at City Hall for the "2020 Cultural City Designation Mutual Cooperation Project."

A "Cultural City" is a national policy project that promotes urban development by utilizing regional cultural resources, supporting the creation of local cultural spaces, training specialized cultural personnel, and developing regional cultural content to establish urban branding.

The city expanded its city brand from "Educational City" to "Cultural City" in June of last year, established a plan for creating a cultural city with the motif of encompassing all generations and inspiration beyond learning, and signed an agreement with Gyeonggi Province, making efforts toward cultural city designation.

As a result, in December of last year, Osan was selected as a "Preliminary Cultural City" under the theme of "Osan, a Vibrant Cultural City Connected Through Bonds."

The signing ceremony was attended by approximately 10 people, including Osan Mayor Kwak Sang-wook, Gyeonggi Tourism Organization President Yu Dong-gyu, and Osan Cultural Foundation Representative Director Jo Yo-han.

According to the agreement, the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization will promote tourism resource linkage projects for cultural city designation, while Osan City will advance practical implementation for cultural city designation, cooperating in connecting education and culture and developing and utilizing tourism resources for cultural city designation.

The signing of this agreement served as an opportunity to promote Jungmiryeong Peace Park and Smith Peace Hall, which opened on the 5th, as distinctive tourist attractions of Osan. The Gyeonggi Tourism Organization also unveiled plans to establish a unification museum at Imjingak, and plans to carry out many cooperative projects with Osan City.

Osan Mayor Kwak Sang-wook said, "As Korea's representative educational city, Osan will create a cultural city of a new dimension by connecting educational and cultural values through 'bonds.'" He added, "We will form tourism infrastructure and present an advanced model of a cultural city to make efforts to be selected as the final cultural city."

President Yu Dong-gyu said, "We actively support Osan City as it takes on a new city brand challenge beyond being an educational city," and promised, "We will spare no effort in cooperation and support so that Osan can be selected as the final cultural city."

Meanwhile, the city plans to conduct preliminary projects by signing agreements with operational institutions in various fields and forming a network, aiming for balanced cultural city development for the final cultural city designation in December.