Gyeonggi Province Expands Public Service Consultation Through KakaoTalk Channel

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park Noh-hoon] The Gyeonggi Province Open Civic Affairs Office is diversifying communication methods, including through KakaoTalk channels.

According to the province on the 7th, in addition to phone connections to the Gyeonggi Province Call Center (031-120), text messages, and social media (SNS), consultation services are being provided quickly and conveniently through the Gyeonggi Province KakaoTalk channel.

This is in response to growing civic complaint demands in the era of a 14-million-strong population.

From October 2020, when KakaoTalk consultation services began, through April of this year, a total of 111,879 KakaoTalk civic complaints have been received, including inquiries about transportation convenience, incident reports, and inquiries about the issuance of various documents such as certificate of personal seal authentication.

Notably, usage has been particularly active among young people who are more familiar with chat-style communication than phone conversations.

KakaoTalk civic complaint consultation services are available from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays, with five consultation representatives handling civic complaints on all provincial government matters.

In addition, the province is implementing various civic complaint service systems to resolve residents’ grievances, including ▲operating a resident petition system where the provincial governor directly responds to petitions with more than 10,000 resident signatures ▲operating civic complaint mediators to prevent "ping-pong complaints" through 1:1 consultation ▲implementing "mandatory 30% reduction in civic complaint processing time" for swift complaint handling ▲operating the "Gyeonggi Love Resident Participation Group" as part of gathering resident opinions and policy participation ▲24-hour, 365-day round-the-clock operation of the Gyeonggi Province 120 Call Center ▲providing foreign language and specialized (sign language) consultation, SNS consultation, and video-based civic complaint guidance.

Kim Chun-gi, director of the Gyeonggi Province Open Civic Affairs Office, said, "As Gyeonggi Province enters the era of a 14-million population, civic complaint service demands are expected to become increasingly diverse and complex. The province is thus diversifying communication methods in response," and added, "We will develop and provide various civic complaint consultation services that can impress residents, including AI-powered services."