"'Lee Jae-myung's Second Half Term' Objectives: "A Fairer and Better Quality of Life Gyeonggi Province""

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] The second half of Governor Lee Jae-myung's elected 7th term began on July 1st. On the 29th, the governor expressed his aspirations for the second half of Gyeonggi Province's governance, stating "I will make Gyeonggi Province's work become the standard for the Republic of Korea. I will make Gyeonggi Province a new center for the Republic of Korea."

He further emphasized, "I will create a fair world where breaking rules cannot bring profit and following rules is not a loss," and "I will open an 'era of mutual support and prosperity where the strong are restrained and the weak are supported, and everyone lives together.'"

Rather than putting forward new provincial governance goals, this is interpreted as a commitment to solidify the foundation of fairness, peace, and welfare pursued in the first half, drawing nourishment from the support and expectations of provincial residents gained during that period.

Governor Lee Jae-myung's second-half provincial governance can be examined through five key implementation projects: ▲A fairer Gyeonggi Province without grievances ▲Gyeonggi Province as the center of the peace era ▲Gyeonggi Province that ensures human dignity through welfare+ ▲Gyeonggi Province where economic growth benefits are distributed equally ▲A better quality of life Gyeonggi Province through careful improvement of living environment.

■A Fairer Gyeonggi Province
Gyeonggi Province will continue the Clean Valley Restoration Project, a representative achievement of the first half, while expanding convenience facilities and living SOC such as walking trails, restrooms, and parking lots in the restored areas for residents and tourists. The plan is to return clean valleys to provincial residents and then revitalize the valley commercial district. In line with Governor Lee's promise to "return the sea to the people of Gyeonggi Province following the valleys," efforts to construct cleaning vessels and strengthen enforcement against illegal parasols and illegal facilities will be intensified. Recently, Kim Hee-gyeom, the first vice administrator of Gyeonggi Province, took charge of the overall "Clean Gyeonggi Bay Project" and visited Jebu Island in Hwaseong City to announce such enforcement plans and inspect the site.

Special Judicial Police Units will expand the scope of investigations into injustice crimes in provincial residents' lives, including environmental damage, illegal medical practices, animal abuse, counterfeit petroleum, house price collusion, and social welfare subsidy fraud. Measures to eliminate unfair real estate transactions will also be strengthened. The province operates a planned real estate monitoring system and makes pinpoint designations of land transaction approval zones preemptively when signs of speculation appear. Accordingly, on June 29th, the province designated 211.28㎢ of forests in 29 cities and counties as land transaction approval zones, an area equivalent to 73 times that of Yeouido.

Additionally, to establish a horizontal relationship between central and local governments, the province will change the name "local government" to "local government," and will also pilot a Gyeonggi Province-type autonomous police system that reflects the province's unique security needs.

■Center of the Peace Era
Despite deteriorating inter-Korean relations, Gyeonggi Province will strengthen Gyeonggi's position for Korean Peninsula peace cooperation and make the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) an international tourist attraction to enhance the symbolism of peace. In particular, with COVID-19 highlighting "human security" that protects not only military safety but all aspects of daily life including disasters, diseases, and environment as an important international agenda, the province plans to proactively strengthen South-North exchanges and cooperation in the healthcare sector.

Additionally, the province will pursue humanitarian cooperation including joint response to livestock infectious diseases and border area disasters, as well as support for food, medicine, and basic living supplies to recover ethnic identity.

To peacefully utilize the Han River estuary as a joint South-North water zone, the province plans to invest an estimated 2.8173 trillion won over 10 years from this year to 2030 for 15 projects in four sectors, including South-North joint surveys of Han River estuary ecology and fishery resources, restoration of waterways, and construction of South-North connecting pedestrian bridges, considering inter-Korean relations developments.

Various individual events conducted in the DMZ area will be unified under one brand called "Let's DMZ" and developed as a representative brand symbolizing Gyeonggi's DMZ and peace, while continuing efforts to jointly register the DMZ as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site between North and South.

For balanced development of the northern and eastern regions of Gyeonggi Province, the province will implement the Second Regional Balanced Development Project for five years until 2024. The target areas are six cities and counties including Gapyeong, Yangpyeong, Yeoncheon, Pocheon, Yeoju, and Dongducheon, with a total investment of 416.8 billion won across 36 projects including LPG pipeline network construction, transportation and tourism infrastructure improvement, agricultural and fisheries living water development, and parking environment improvement.

■Gyeonggi Province Ensuring Human Dignity Through Welfare+
Following the resolution of welfare blind spots through Gyeonggi Province-style emergency welfare support and small loans for the extremely low-credit residents of Gyeonggi Province, the province plans to establish a dedicated institution (tentatively named) Gyeonggi Livelihood Finance Foundation next year to provide customized financial welfare services. The foundation will handle Gyeonggi Province-style small financial support, debtor-focused debt adjustment, and linkage with welfare services.

In the second half of this year, the province will operate the "Gyeonggi Fair Welfare Task Force" to block welfare leakage such as fraudulent benefits and misappropriation of subsidies, secure transparency in welfare budgets, and realize "fair welfare without violations."

The province will make the welfare safety net more comprehensive so that everyone can enjoy a dignified life. A Disability Employment Support Center will be established next year to support the independence of persons with disabilities, and social safety nets will be built to support single-household health and housing. The province will support the installation of a public postpartum care facility in Pocheon next year and plans to progressively expand community care centers to address elementary school care blind spots. The province will support policy participation and mutual exchange of Gyeonggi youth and will establish and operate the "Gyeonggi Youth Support Business Unit," a public-private cooperative intermediate support organization supporting Gyeonggi youth policies.

The province will discover and expand Gyeonggi Province-style quality employment for seniors and plans to progressively expand the current Gyeonggi Women's Employment Support Fund, which provides 300,000 won per person for three months to facilitate women job seekers' entry into the labor market.

Additionally, the province will strengthen a healthcare environment without health disparities through installation and operation of public hospitals at the Anseong Highway rest stop, support of 30 million won per facility for CCTV installation in private medical institutions' operating rooms, operation of multi-person hyperbaric oxygen chambers capable of treating 10 or more simultaneous gas poisoning patients, and designation and operation of mental emergency medical institutions.

■Gyeonggi Province Where Economic Growth Benefits Are Distributed Equally
The center of economic policy is local currency-type basic income that increases disposable income to create effective demand. Gyeonggi Province believes that the economic circulation effects of disaster basic income have been confirmed, basic income is being actively discussed at the national level, and the foundation for public discourse has been established. The province plans to lay the foundation for institutionalization such as "Basic Income Act" in the second half. The province will support the activities of social discussion forums including the National Assembly "Basic Income Research Forum" and the Gyeonggi Provincial Assembly "Basic Income Research Group," and will continue efforts to expand consensus through the launch of (tentatively named) Basic Income Local Government Council and the Republic of Korea Basic Income Expo. The province will first nationally introduce farmer basic income that provides individual farmers a certain amount in local currency, and will conduct demonstration experiments to select rural villages as the first among OECD countries and provide basic income to all residents of the villages. The province will enhance the convenience of Gyeonggi local currency by expanding mobile easy payment using app cards and QR code methods and will pursue securing stable circulation volumes through discovering new policies.

At the same time, the province will implement Gyeonggi Province-style New Deal projects in connection with the government's "Korean New Deal" and is preparing approximately 100 projects in three sectors: Digital New Deal, Green New Deal, and Human New Deal. The province plans to implement customized job policies responding to employment condition changes and job demand in the post-COVID-19 era and will create new jobs by establishing digital and renewable energy infrastructure.

For small and medium-sized merchants and manufacturers, the province will establish a fund of 10 billion won or more as the second round of restart funds that invest in experiences of failed businesses, and will increase support funds for job expansion companies. The province will implement the Hopeful Commercial District Project targeting commercial district economic communities concerned about depopulation due to government office relocations or nearby large-scale redevelopment projects, and will establish (tentatively named) Gyeonggi Social Economy Foundation to strengthen the competitiveness of social economy enterprises.

Furthermore, the province will create a foundation for fostering cutting-edge industries such as smart cities, smart factories, data industries, drone industries, and virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR), and will establish an eco-system for the small and medium-sized materials, parts, and equipment (SME) industry through support for localization technology development of SME items with high external dependency and infrastructure development such as the Yongin Semiconductor Cluster Industrial Complex (large and small/medium enterprise cooperative complex) and semiconductor SME industrial complexes (Anseong, Pyeongtaek).

■A Better Quality of Life Gyeonggi Province Through Improved Living Environment
A Gyeonggi Province where everyone wants to live and move to is realized through convenient transportation, human-centered urban spaces, clean environment, and safe living.

With the establishment of the Gyeonggi Transportation Corporation, the province will implement stable services based on public interest through securing route rights and will increase residents' convenience through enhanced transportation basic rights in transportation vulnerable areas and customized bus operations. In October, the province will pilot the Gyeonggi Premium Bus with premium vehicle introduction and reserved-only services, differentiated from existing metropolitan buses, on 7 routes across 3 cities (Suwon, Yongin, Hwaseong). The province will support the Suin Line (opening in 2020), Jinjung Line (opening in 2021), Sinan Line (opening in 2024), and Seoul Metropolitan Area Rapid Transit (GTX) to proceed without interruption.

The province will strengthen regional resilience by enabling new industry innovation clusters under construction, including the 3rd Pangyo Techno Valley and Ilsan Techno Valley, to commence early, and plans to supply 200,000 public rental housing units by 2022 and 10,000 Gyeonggi Happy Housing units customized for youth and newlyweds by 2022. Additionally, the province plans to establish the Gyeonggi Environment and Energy Promotion Agency with a goal of opening in early next year to respond to environmental policy issues and secure expertise.

The province will pursue the enactment of the "Gyeonggi Province Cultural Autonomy Basic Ordinance" to institutionally ensure everyone's access to culture, and will expand non-contact cultural arts programs and non-contact lifelong learning systems in line with the changed environment following COVID-19.

To realize the safety and happiness of provincial residents, the province will establish the Gyeonggi Smart Integrated Situation Room system to fully prepare for natural disaster prevention and will pursue the establishment of a construction site safety management system and the establishment of a Gyeonggi Province-style industrial safety center.