Anyang Mayor Choi Dae-ho Leads Local Government Delegation to Costa Rica

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Um In-yong] Anyang City announced on June 29 that Anyang Mayor Choi Dae-ho is embarking on a visit to Costa Rica as a representative of a local government delegation composed of municipal leaders from the National Social and Solidarity Economy Local Government Council to observe sustainable local government policy models and explore bilateral cooperation.

On this business trip, Mayor Choi, who serves as president of the Democratic Party of Korea's Basic Local Government Leaders' Conference, is accompanied by Gwangmyeong Mayor Park Seung-won, chair of the Climate Crisis Response and Energy Transition Local Government Council, and Anseong Mayor Kim Bo-ra, chair of the National Social and Solidarity Economy Local Government Council.

During the visit from June 29 to July 6, the delegation will pay a courtesy call to Costa Rica's First Vice President Stephan Brunner, who oversees sustainable development and economic policy, to discuss enhanced bilateral cooperation in areas such as sustainable development, social economy, and ecology-centered regional policies.

The delegation will also visit key institutions of sustainable development policy including Costa Rica's Foreign Trade and Investment Promotion Authority (PROCOMER) and the Costa Rica Tourism Board (ICT), as well as major companies.

This visit, conducted at the invitation of the Costa Rican government, follows continuous exchanges between the council and the Costa Rican government since 2017, and aims to advance cooperation following the launch of the new government while exploring policy models that will contribute to establishing Korea's new development framework.

Known as the "Switzerland of Central America," Costa Rica is recognized as a repository of ecosystems containing 5% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity and 3.5% of marine biodiversity, and is a nation that has adopted "sustainability" as a way of life and as a core industry and national strategy.

In particular, Costa Rica actively practices a "social economy" in which all participants—from production to distribution to consumption—in all economic activities pursue mutual prosperity. In fact, based on 2016 data, the social economy accounts for approximately 16% of total employment, with social economy enterprises actively operating in diverse sectors including agriculture, food processing, telecommunications, energy, finance, and healthcare.

Meanwhile, the National Social and Solidarity Economy Local Government Council is an administrative council established in 2013 to promote social economy revitalization in domestic regions, comprising 43 local government leaders nationwide.

Mayor Choi Dae-ho said, "To build a future city of Anyang where everyone grows together, I will link diverse local cases with existing industries and policies, and lay the foundation for Anyang's ascendancy by pursuing a sustainable Anyang-style economic system."