Gyeonggi Province Establishes Daily Communication System with Residents through 'Gyeonggi Love Citizen Participation Group'

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 21st that it will reflect residents' voices in policy and strengthen communication with residents through the 'Gyeonggi Love Citizen Participation Group.'

The Gyeonggi Love Citizen Participation Group is an organization designed to gather opinions from various sectors across the province and reflect them in provincial administration. Through open recruitment, the province selected 165 members for the fourth term last month, and a total of 274 members, including 109 reappointed from the third term, will serve for two years starting August 1st.

The province selected participation group members by evaluating residents' interest in provincial affairs and their activism levels according to regional, gender, and age distribution quotas. Consequently, the group is composed of diverse residents ranging from their 20s to 70s, including office workers, farmers and fishermen, self-employed individuals, housewives, and students.

The Gyeonggi Love Citizen Participation Group conducts activities including △participating in satisfaction surveys on major provincial projects and presenting improvement and supplementary measures △participating in resident evaluation and assessment for competitions, contests, and institutional evaluations △conducting functional checks through user tests of computer systems such as apps and websites △participating in opinion-gathering events organized by the province, including online events (such as discussion topic recruitment) and offline events (such as seminars).

Last year, the group participated in human rights surveys and monitoring for enhancing residents' human rights, gathering opinions on revitalizing floating population in areas with declining populations, suggestions for improving the Gyeonggi Culture Pass app, and gathering opinions on developing areas to be returned by the U.S. Forces Korea.

Following Governor Choo Mi-ae's instructions, the province plans to introduce various communication methods starting this year so that the Gyeonggi Love Citizen Participation Group can serve as an example of communication innovation connecting the province and residents.

Accordingly, Governor Choo Mi-ae will directly participate in online Zoom meetings conducted by the Gyeonggi Love Citizen Participation Group to discuss major provincial policy issues with the participation group, and the province plans to establish various daily communication systems including direct dialogue.

Governor Choo Mi-ae stated, "When the provincial governor directly communicates and listens and responds to residents' opinions, it will serve as the foundation for administrative innovation. In a wide region like Gyeonggi Province, we can achieve deeper communication by strengthening direct dialogue online without large budget expenditures. We will continue to innovate various public-private cooperation communication methods in the province," expressing strong commitment to communication.

Hong Deok-soo, Director of Gyeonggi Province's Open Civil Complaint Office, said, "The citizen participation group, as representatives of 14.2 million residents, is expected to realize resident participation in administration and increase empathy and understanding toward provincial affairs by reflecting diverse voices in policy."