Pyeongtaek City Governance Council Holds 'Forum on Ways to Revitalize Public Interest Activities'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] The Pyeongtaek City Governance Council held a 'Forum on Ways to Revitalize Public Interest Activities' under its own auspices on the 26th.

The Pyeongtaek City Governance Council is a body for deliberation and coordination on governance overall, working to propose various roles and matters of social consensus to the mayor to revitalize governance-based city administration and to help the mayor implement them.

Held at the Nambu Culture and Arts Center under the theme of 'How is a new citizenry that opens a governance environment and a cooperative civil society possible?', this forum was attended by some 30 people, including members of civic and social organizations, public officials, and working-level members of the Governance Council.

Moderated by Park Jeong-in, general support officer for Pyeongtaek City governance, presentations were given on ▲Ways to Revitalize Public Interest Activities in Gyeonggi Province (An Myeong-gyun, director of the Gyeonggi Province Public Interest Activity Support Center) ▲The Current State of Public Interest Activities in Pyeongtaek City and Support Tasks (Park Ho-rim, secretary-general of the Solidarity for Participatory Autonomy) ▲Cases of Enacting Ordinances to Revitalize Public Interest Activities (Kim Hyun, member of the TF team for the establishment of the Gunpo City Public Interest Activity Support Center). Following the presentations, a discussion was held with So Tae-yeong, chair of the Governance Council's foundation-building working committee, as moderator.

An Myeong-gyun, the first presenter, explained that "public interest activities are activities with public benefit based on the voluntary participation of citizens," and "all activities of citizens and organizations that are not aimed solely at fellowship among members or at profit."

Secretary-General Park Ho-rim said, "There is a need to shift from a regulation-centered paradigm to one based on trust, and to strengthen civil society's participation in city administration into actual authority," and proposed "revising the Act on Support for Non-Profit Non-Governmental Organizations, granting legal status to small-scale public interest activities, and introducing citizen-friendly systems to revitalize public interest activities."

Following the presentations, Ryu Jeong-hwa, chairperson of the Pyeongtaek Hanuibaram Village Cooperative, who participated as a discussant, spoke about the difficulties she faced as a female citizen who had engaged in various activities for 10 years before encountering the public sector, saying, "Citizens are not curious about the 'answer' set by the 'administration,' but rather want to be connected to the process of reaching the 'answer' and to public services according to their needs," and "establishing this process would be a way to support citizens' public interest activities."

Pyeongtaek City Councilor Yoo Seung-young emphasized, "In the course of Pyeongtaek's development, there were times of crisis when the voices of citizens were needed, and at each of those times, there was a role played by civic and social organizations that represented the citizens," adding, "There is a need to compile the history of the civic organization movement, and systems must be established to support the power of citizens and civil society."

A city official said, "Starting with this forum, we will continue an ongoing public forum for citizens," and "Based on this, we will go on to establish systems and support projects to revitalize citizens' public interest activities."