Dear citizens of Icheon, 240,000 strong!
And dear public officials!
The new year of 2025, the Year of the Snake (乙巳年), has dawned.
The Year of the Snake, which once symbolized the twists and turns of Korean history, is now regarded as a year representing new opportunities and challenges beyond our limitations.
Just as warm sunlight melts the snow,
I hope this year becomes a time when we soar forward with powerful determination, drawing strength from our past experiences of overcoming countless obstacles.
I firmly believe that the first joy we will encounter in the new year of 2025 will be the attraction of a science high school.
Last month, our city proudly secured its place as a preliminary designation candidate for the "Gyeonggi Province Science High School" at Stage 1.
We have passed the first and most crucial hurdle, and the remaining tasks are the committee deliberation next month and the final selection process in March.
Attracting a science high school is the starting point for Icheon City to leap forward as a central city in eastern Gyeonggi Province, simultaneously fostering scientific talent and advancing cutting-edge industries.
With the potential we have demonstrated so far, I ask that citizens continue to unite in heart and mind so we can boldly open the door of opportunity that has arrived before us.
Dear citizens!
Over the past year, I have devoted my utmost efforts to creating "a newer, more hopeful Icheon."
Despite the difficulties of an unprecedented fiscal crisis, citizens and public officials united to achieve meaningful results.
We promised close cooperation with Yongin City to strengthen semiconductor company competitiveness, expand road networks, and foster small and medium-sized parts and materials enterprises. We established a semiconductor talent training center and a semiconductor-specialized contract program at Icheon First High School, creating a platform to develop local talent into semiconductor experts.
We introduced bold policies providing up to 3 billion won in support for companies investing 20 billion won or more, approved and announced the Daewol-2 General Industrial Park as a cradle for advanced enterprises, broke ground on the Bubal High Pass Interchange, and heightened our value as an attractive investment destination.
We returned Seolbong Park to citizens as a comfortable retreat with enhanced forests and plazas, and Bunsudae-Ogori was reborn as a new Icheon landmark with improved traffic safety and urban landscape.
Along with this, we are creating a city where forests and parks are found everywhere by establishing Anheung Reservoir night landscape, Bokha Stream third and fourth waterfront parks, Jeungpo urban forest, Buak neighborhood park, Hot Spring Park's barrier-free accessible path, and circular loop walks throughout the city.
The "Icheon Turtle Play" held in Belgium and France, centers of European culture, introduced the excellence of Icheon culture to the world, and the successful hosting of the Haewol Animation Festival and Icheon Pet Festival confirmed the potential of future-oriented cultural content.
Icheon City, home to Korea's first children's song history museum, held the Silver Children's Song Festival and a nationwide children's song festival last year, and is elevating its status as the center of Korean original children's songs by pioneering Korea's first children's song center.
We completed two provincial roads between Mojeon–Doji and Jakchon–Haewol, three rural roads, and three urban planning roads, improving traffic flow. The on-demand "Ddok Bus" introduced early in the city center, Janghowan, and Yul areas significantly improved public transportation convenience.
Young people in Icheon, who develop policies for themselves, are stably designing their futures with support from 53 youth policies covering all aspects of life, from employment and marriage to improved living conditions.
Additionally, we established Korea's first 24-hour child care centers, where children can be entrusted anytime, and set up a joint care center within military base housing. We began initiatives allowing children to go to school without worrying about supplies, alleviating parents' childcare burdens.
Thus, external observers have applauded our steady progress in realizing "a New Icheon, Building the Future Together."
Last year, Icheon City proudly ranked first nationally in the "Rural and Fishery Living Quality Evaluation" conducted by the Presidential Committee on Rural and Fishery Development.
We also received approximately 50 awards including the Presidential Citation for National Records Management, the Korean Landscape Award, and the Disaster Preparedness Regular Drill Excellence Award, and secured a record 86.8 billion won in nationally competitive project funds from 72 projects in the past year alone, significantly strengthening our tight finances.
These are brilliant results achieved by citizens and public officials united in one heart. I extend deep gratitude to all citizens who contributed their hearts.
Respected citizens!
We continue to face challenges from an uncertain future.
As domestic political conflicts and turmoil persist, the regional economy is rapidly freezing.
Unstable international circumstances threaten peace, and low birth rates, aging populations, and unpredictable climate change are worries difficult to resolve easily.
However, as the saying goes, "rough waves are friends to those who move forward."
Whatever difficulties arise, our advance toward citizens' well-being and a better future for Icheon must continue.
2025, a year of leaping to greater heights beyond crisis.
I will strive more powerfully toward the goals of "recovery of livelihood economy," "pursuit of a future city," and "enhancement of everyday happiness."
I will prioritize citizens' lives and protect livelihood and the economy.
I will cultivate new growth engines to lead Icheon's future and enhance the city's competitiveness.
Thus I will take firm steps toward Icheon's change and growth, and infinite happiness for its citizens.
In difficult times for all, I will prioritize livelihood.
The core of livelihood is good jobs and economic stability.
Through customized vocational training, I will develop the capabilities of those who wish to work, and through integrated job project management, I will enhance job matching efficiency between enterprises and job seekers.
I will issue regional currency worth 110 billion won and protect small business owners and small and medium enterprises through financial support and improved business environments.
I will support youth employment and entrepreneurship in various ways, care from mental health to housing and welfare, and help young people become agents of regional economic recovery.
I will create a welfare environment enjoyed by all generations.
I will broaden channels for discovering welfare gaps, raise the level of basic livelihood support, and implement diverse support policies so seniors and people with disabilities can achieve economic, physical, and social independence.
I will accelerate expansion of welfare infrastructure providing full-lifecycle care, from municipal cremation facilities to the women's vision center and Icheon Hospital's pediatric rehabilitation center, and solidify cooperation with regional medical institutions including visits to medically underserved villages, firmly protecting citizens' health and lives.
From birth, I will nurture children to grow correctly and safely and support them until they become leaders of society through public childcare and future-oriented education systems.
I will prepare for the future by looking bigger and farther ahead.
I will set Icheon's growth momentum on the right track.
In this era of change, I will establish a city vision and plan looking ahead 50 years, specifically explore and implement practical measures for sustainable development.
I will stably develop the Daewol-2 General Industrial Park by 2026 and build infrastructure including roads and housing alongside a professional talent cultivation system for the settlement and growth of promising future industries such as semiconductors, drones, and mobility.
In the not-distant future, Icheon will emerge as a hub city for rail transport linking east-west and north-south across the Republic of Korea.
Following last year's extension and opening of the Bubal–Chungju Central Inland Line to Mungyeong, narrowing the distance between the capital region and local areas, I will do my utmost to ensure that the GTX-D line, the Yongin–Bubal semiconductor line, and associated metropolitan road networks are reflected in national plans and stably constructed.
I will complete the Jungni District as a perfect new city this year and concretize development plans for underdeveloped areas in three station zones.
I will pursue balanced regional development through concentrated investment in urban regeneration projects in the old downtown and southern areas and construction of network-type road systems.
Agriculture is a leading industry that will drive Icheon's future.
I will seamlessly promote the southern region rural partnership project and construction of the northern region agricultural machinery rental facility, improve rural residential conditions, and realize a sustainable agricultural environment through domestic and international market development, future agriculture technology promotion, and cultivation of new agricultural workforce.
I will add warmth of happiness to citizens' daily lives.
I will pursue a cultural city with Icheon's unique character.
While establishing Icheon's history and traditions, I will continually discover new cultural and tourism content to broaden the foundation of Icheon culture, provide citizens with high-quality cultural performances and diverse art programs, and create a city where culture accompanies daily life.
I will advance toward a healthy and pleasant city.
Along with the Seolbong Park renovation project, I am promoting 7 neighborhood parks, 9 sports facilities, and urban forest children's park remodeling projects throughout the city. I will seamlessly develop these as community spaces connecting citizens with citizens.
Additionally, I will construct public parking lots being promoted throughout the city as planned to gradually resolve downtown parking inconvenience, improve taxi call systems, diversify special transportation, and support transportation costs for mobility-disadvantaged citizens to enhance public transportation convenience.
In the realm of citizen safety, I will maximize efficiency by concentrating smart technologies such as intelligent video analysis and automatic alerts.
I will respond to the climate crisis through renewable energy conversion, expansion of hydrogen charging stations, and promotion of eco-friendly vehicles, and will continually improve aging water and sewerage facilities to implement a safe and pleasant urban environment.
Respected and beloved citizens!
Icheon is clearly changing right now.
By uniting citizens' aspirations and will, we are envisioning "a newer, happier future Icheon."
I will move forward unchanged, together with you.
In the new year of 2025, I will tirelessly challenge for Icheon's development and citizen happiness, and the courage to achieve shining results together with you strengthens my resolve.
I will surely achieve this.
Toward a future Icheon that preserves history and tradition while shining anew with high-value cutting-edge industries!
Toward Icheon's tomorrow where our beloved children amidst green nature freely spread the wings of their dreams!
Using the wisdom and courage you have given citizens as my compass,
I will advance with greater strides.
A new year of hope, a year of challenge 2025.
I hope this becomes days of happiness where all your hopes and wishes are fulfilled.
Happy New Year to you all.
Citizens of Icheon, I love you.
Thank you.
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