Jeonnam Gwangju Special City Council: “A Dedicated Department for the Basic Society Is Needed”

Special Act Grants Special Provisions in Seven Areas Including Care, Housing, and Healthcare
“A Unified Body Needed to Coordinate Scattered Policies and Drive Leading Initiatives”

With a legal basis now established for fostering Jeonnam Gwangju Integrated Special City as a leading region for the basic society, calls have emerged to create a dedicated department that will consolidate and coordinate relevant policies.

The Standing Special Committee on Basic Society of the Jeonnam Gwangju Integrated Special City Council issued a statement on the 9th, stating, “There must be an administrative body to oversee and coordinate basic society policies—which are currently scattered among various departments, such as care, housing, and healthcare.”

Jeonnam Gwangju Integrated Special City Council.

The committee cited Article 317 of the Special Act, which mandates fostering the integrated special city as a pilot region for implementing the basic society. This article enables the city to prioritize demonstration projects and specialized policies in seven areas: care, housing, healthcare, education, transportation, energy, and income security.

The committee pointed out that entrusting these projects to individual departments across multiple bureaus makes it difficult to ensure policy consistency and effective implementation. It emphasized that a dedicated department should be responsible for establishing master plans, coordinating interdepartmental projects, responding to national initiatives, drafting ordinances and budgets, and evaluating performance.

The committee added that, since the presidential Basic Society Committee and the Basic Society Policy Division under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety are already operating, the integrated special city also needs an organization to translate the legal authority of the Special Act into concrete policies.

Regarding Mayor Min Hyungbae’s proposal to present basic income—along with growth, balance, green cities, and citizen sovereignty—as one of the five key principles of city administration, the committee stated that “the basic income initiative must be connected to overall city policies through a dedicated organization.”

The committee called for the establishment of a dedicated office for basic society policies, the promotion of projects in the pilot region according to Article 317 of the Special Act, and the creation of a joint research system involving the Gwangju and Jeonnam Institutes.

Park Pilsoon, chair of the committee, stated, “Jeonnam Gwangju is a leading region equipped with legal exemptions for realizing a basic society. We must first implement demonstration projects and specialized policies to present a standard model that can be reflected in basic society policies nationwide.” He further stressed, “Civic life will not change on legal grounds alone,” and urged Mayor Min and the executive branch to establish a dedicated department and promote pilot projects.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.