New Year's Address Mayor Lee Sang-il of Yongin Special City

Respected citizens of Yongin Special City, I offer my New Year's greetings for 2023.

I believe the feeling that comes with welcoming a new year is always something special.

This is because our vision for a better future carries ambition and hope.

As our 1.1 million citizens develop a wonderful vision, I wish that all your hopes and dreams come true.

As the mayor of Yongin Special City in the 8th locally elected term, I am presenting the municipal vision of "A Future Built Together: Yongin Renaissance" and working with utmost sincerity.

Together with approximately 4,000 civil servants, I am working to achieve qualitative change and quantitative growth in all sectors including economy and industry, transportation, culture and arts, education, welfare, and community sports for the development of Yongin and the improvement of citizens' lives.

I am also making efforts to seek wisdom from citizens and listen to voices from the field of people's livelihoods.

For Yongin's leap forward and improvement in citizens' quality of life, I will listen to citizens' thoughts and opinions, receive guidance, and reaffirm my determination to pioneer Yongin's future together with citizens on this New Year.

The budget scale for Yongin Special City in the new year is 3.2147 trillion won, marking the first time in Yongin's history that we enter a 3 trillion won budget era.

This budget will be used for citizens and for Yongin's balanced development in each sector. I will ensure full attention to budget execution and financial management so that citizens' tax money is not wasted.

A new New Growth Strategy Bureau will be established in the city in the new year.

The New Growth Strategy Bureau will be an organization to further promote advanced 4th industrial technologies including semiconductors, and will play a role in raising Yongin Special City's economic power and status.

Since the authority of special cities including Yongin must be further strengthened, as the chairperson of the Special City Mayors' Council, I will do everything I can in the new year.

Since taking office, I have resolved the issue of Gogyo Bridge in Dongcheon-dong, Suji-gu, and passed the metropolitan traffic improvement measures through the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport review related to Platform City development in Giheung-gu. When a budget of 1.07 trillion won—increased by more than 260 billion won from the original amount—is invested, the underground section of National Route 23 will be significantly expanded, and traffic around Platform City will be much smoother.

Work to comprehensively transform Yongin Central Market in Choin-gu, which has more than 60 years of tradition, and its surrounding area will accelerate in earnest in the new year.

This is because smart regeneration of Central Market and its surroundings, which failed in the 7th locally elected term when competing for urban regeneration projects from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, has been selected as a competitive project from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport following the launch of the 8th term.

Progress is also going smoothly on establishing a semiconductor and AI high school, and the Eco-Town development project in Choin-gu will gain momentum as we have secured twice as much budget as in the government budget plan.

Since a substantial budget for expanding Yongin's transportation network has also been allocated, I believe citizens' transportation inconvenience can be alleviated to some extent.

I will make dedicated efforts to construct a semiconductor expressway connecting east and west in southern Yongin and to establish alternative and bypass roads for Yongseo Expressway.

Woo Sang-hyeok, the world's No. 1 high jumper, will wear Yongin City Hall's uniform starting January 1st of the new year.

I will support Woo Sang-hyeok so he can achieve good results at the 2023 World Championships, Hangzhou Asian Games, and 2024 Paris Olympics to bring glory to Yongin, and I will cheer him on together with citizens.

In the new year, I will make efforts for Yongin to be recognized as having upgraded in education and culture and arts, and I will do my best so that care and welfare for the elderly, children, people with disabilities, and socially disadvantaged groups can be further improved.

In the process of promoting these initiatives, I will communicate with citizens and listen to their opinions and advice.

I hope citizens will speak freely.

Henri Nouwen, a theologian who served in Canada's disabled community and passed away in 1996, prayed, "I hope to become someone who is indispensable to everyone."

I and all civil servants as the mayor of Yongin Special City will work faithfully and rightly in the new year to become the people you, our respected citizens, need.

Nouwen also prayed like this: "I hope that everyone will always live with hope."

I hope that all 1.1 million citizens of Yongin Special City will embrace beautiful hopes of their own and cultivate hope in 2023.

I support the dreams and achievements of you, our respected citizens.

Wishing you a happy new year.