‘Inwangsan Choso Bookstore’ Selected as Jongno-gu Best Practice in Proactive Administration

Published 02 Sep.2020 08:34(KST)

Best Practice: Park Greenery Division's 'Inwangsan Choso Bookstore Creation'... Transformed a Closed Police Post into a Multifunctional Cultural Space for Local Residents, Receiving High Praise

‘Inwangsan Choso Bookstore’ Selected as Jongno-gu Best Practice in Proactive Administration

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Jongno-gu (Mayor Kim Young-jong) established the ‘2020 Jongno-gu Proactive Administration Implementation Plan’ in June this year to establish proactive administration as an organizational culture, and is promoting key tasks by sector while striving to improve resident satisfaction.

As part of this effort, in response to the rapidly changing administrative environment such as the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the selection of the ‘2020 Second Half Jongno-gu Proactive Administration Best Practices’ was completed at the end of August to widely publicize proactive administration cases that residents can empathize with and experience.

From July 23 to August 7, excellent cases were received from all departments including affiliated organizations of the district office, and first and second round evaluations were conducted based on criteria such as resident experience, the proactiveness and creativity of the person in charge, and the possibility of spreading to other institutions.

As a result, a total of five best cases were finally selected.

The grand prize was awarded to ‘Creating the Open Closed Space Inwangsan Choso Bookstore’ (Park and Greenery Division).

The Inwangsan Choso Bookstore is a case where the police post (Inwang CP) installed on the slopes of Inwangsan by the National Police Agency for Blue House protection after the armed infiltration incident by Kim Shin-jo in January 1968 was donated free of charge and transformed into a complex cultural space for residents. The existing building framework was preserved, the previously closed interior space was opened up, some damaged nature was restored, and it was created as a book cafe and observation deck for citizens. It is being operated under private consignment and is scheduled to open in October.

Next, the excellence awards were given to the Construction Management Division’s ‘Changsin-dong’s New Face ? Win-Win through Coexistence!’ which cleaned up indiscriminately installed street stalls in Changsin-dong, and the Health Center’s ‘Proactive COVID-19 Testing, Early Detection of Confirmed Cases to Block COVID-19!’

The encouragement awards were given to two cases: ‘Begin Again ? Let’s Perform in the Park Again’ (Culture Division) and ‘Wise Tourism Life in the Post-COVID-19 Era’ (Tourism Division).

The district plans to award commendations and prize money for the final best cases. Among them, the ‘Inwangsan Choso Bookstore Creation’ case selected as the grand prize will be submitted to the 2020 Second Half Proactive Administration Best Practices Competition conducted by the Ministry of Personnel Management, and the responsible public official will be recommended as a ‘Jongno-gu Proactive Administration Outstanding Public Official.’

Meanwhile, last year, Jongno-gu achieved the great success of winning the Prime Minister’s Award at the 4th Proactive Administration Best Practices Competition hosted by the Ministry of Personnel Management with the theme ‘Security Lights ? Road Name Address, QR Code Reporting. Budget Savings as a Bonus!’ The district assigned location information and unique QR codes to about 10,000 security light tags in the area, established a security light management system, and received favorable evaluations for drastically reducing the civil complaint processing time when reporting security light malfunctions.

Mayor Kim Young-jong said, “Following the enactment of the Presidential Decree ‘Local Government Officials Proactive Administration Operation Regulations’ and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s notification of the ‘2020 Local Government Officials Proactive Administration Operation Guidelines’ in May this year, Jongno-gu also enacted the ‘Jongno-gu Proactive Administration Operation Ordinance’ in June 2020. This laid the institutional foundation to solidify the proactive administration promotion system at the local government level.” He added, “Based on creativity and expertise, we will boldly improve regulations and precedents that do not fit reality and strive to discover good projects that residents can feel in their daily lives.”