Gyeonggi Province Hosts Civic Autonomy Workshop to Strengthen Northern Region Capacity

Gyeonggi Province held a civic autonomy workshop on the 26th at the Uijeongbu City Education Foundation, attended by approximately 100 people including civic autonomy committee members and government officials from 10 cities and counties in northern Gyeonggi.

The province began with an orientation on civic autonomy activation programs and networking among municipalities, then shared amendments to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's 'Reference Ordinance on Establishment and Operation of Civic Autonomy Organizations.' The amendment includes mandating resident general assemblies and autonomy plan establishment, and strengthening the linkage between autonomy plans and resident participatory budgeting systems.

Gunpo City took the lead in presenting civic autonomy best practices. Gunpo City implemented customized training for civic autonomy committee members and residents, and linked local agendas with resident participatory budgeting. It introduced cases of systematically operating the entire civic autonomy process, including determining project priorities through policy sharing meetings and resident general assemblies.

Subsequently, participants shared measures to address civil-government conflicts occurring in civic autonomy practice and know-how for establishing autonomy plans, discussing ways to activate civic autonomy.

The civic autonomy workshop for 21 cities and counties in the southern region is scheduled to be held on September 1st at the Convention Hall of Gyeonggi Arts Center in Suwon.

Kim Sang-pal, Director of the Autonomous Administration Division at Gyeonggi Province, said, "This will be an opportunity to increase autonomy and cooperation capacity of civic autonomy organizations through case sharing and enhanced networking among municipalities," and added, "We will continue to support greater activation of resident-led autonomous activities."