Respected Citizens! And Public Officials!
Leaving behind the regretful year of 2021, we have welcomed the new year of 2022, the Year of the Tiger.
I hope that this year will be filled with happiness in every household of our citizens and will be a fruitful year where all your aspirations are realized.
I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the medical and public officials from both the private and public sectors who have done their best at the forefront of quarantine efforts despite challenging circumstances last year, and to all 160,000 residents of Uiwang who have united to overcome this crisis.
Even under city administration circumstances that were more difficult than ever before, approximately 700 public officials have made an all-out effort to create an Uiwang where citizens live better, are happier, and enjoy a higher quality of life, based on the city administration philosophy of fairness, transparency, dialogue, and compromise. As a result, we have achieved considerable accomplishments over the past year.
Following the announcement of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's "Third Round of New Public Residential Land Development Plan for Expanded Housing Supply in Metropolitan Areas," our city will develop approximately 2.214 million square meters (670,000 pyeong) in the Chopyeong, Wolar, and Samdong areas into an integrated city where people, nature, and employment opportunities coexist. The development is planned to accommodate 32,000 residents and 14,000 households.
Through this announcement, the long-cherished aspiration of 160,000 Uiwang residents for the GTX-C line's stop at Uiwang Station has been essentially confirmed.
The Naesone-Integrated Future School, which underwent investment review by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Education, has resolved a 20-year-long desire of residents in the Naesone 2-dong area who faced inconvenience due to the absence of a middle school.
We received "Age-Friendly City Certification" from the WHO, and we are supporting active daily lives for seniors through various senior welfare policies, including the opening of a senior playground at the Ohjeon Family Park.
We obtained "Child-Friendly City Certification" from UNICEF and are establishing a policy foundation where children's rights can be guaranteed, thereby strengthening child-friendly policies.
We opened a child protection specialized institution, and we are continuously expanding "care infrastructure" including state-run childcare centers, the "Together Childcare Center," and "Childcare Sharing Spaces."
We opened the Poil Harmony Center and the Baegun Community Center to create citizen community spaces, and installed a cultural rest area with a small performance hall in the lower space under the Wangnim Bridge.
The Cheonggye Stream has been transformed into a clean valley with the addition of a plaza, viewing facilities, rest areas, and restrooms, and Baekun Mountain now offers a "Nuri-gil" trail that provides urban citizens with a healing space.
To improve the parking environment at the Bugok Dokkaebi Market, we created a public parking lot with 96 spaces, and formally implemented a car-free street within the Dokkaebi Market.
Near the ICD Terminal 2, we created a public parking garage for cargo vehicles with parking for 50 container trucks, and completed the Wangsong Stream Road.
We established the foundation for a low-carbon, green city by constructing solar power plants, attracting fuel cell power generation business, expanding eco-friendly vehicle distribution, and introducing an artificial intelligence management system for convenient electric vehicle use.
Based on these efforts and achievements, our city received numerous awards in various fields last year.
We received the Grand Prize in the Gyeonggi First Contest and secured 5 billion won in special adjustment grants to create a transit parking lot and cultural park at Ohjeon Station on the Indong Line.
We received an SA grade, the highest rating, in the promise fulfillment evaluation conducted by the Manifesto Practice Foundation, and won the Grand Prize at the Best Practice Competition for our job creation project for middle-aged and older workers.
In the Governance Local Politics Awards, we received the Grand Prize in the community capacity category, earning the top award for three consecutive years.
We received the Minister's Award at the Korea Urban Awards hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, winning the award for two consecutive years.
In the Gyeonggi Province Comprehensive Municipal Evaluation, we received an award of excellence and secured 200 million won in incentives, receiving institutional commendation for four consecutive years.
Additionally, we actively worked to secure national treasury funds through policy contests and other measures, securing 20.2 billion won in dependent revenue.
I believe all these achievements are the fruition of the active support of 160,000 citizens and the wisdom and efforts of approximately 700 public officials.
I extend my deep gratitude to everyone.
Respected Citizens! And Public Officials!
To establish ourselves as a future self-sufficient city with convenient transportation, an eco-friendly residential environment, premium spaces, and high-quality jobs suited to the advanced era, I will outline the key projects for priority implementation in 2022.
First, I will open an era of citizen autonomy based on communication and empathy.
To realize substantive resident autonomy, I will prepare for the complete conversion of resident autonomy committees into resident autonomy councils that solve local issues through resident general meetings.
Through community capacity-building education, I will nurture integrated village leaders and support village community activities through resident-proposed village development, community network building, and local agenda discovery.
In city administration, I will foster creative public service culture through the expansion of proactive administration and nurture capable talent with competitiveness to implement administration that earns citizen trust.
Additionally, I will use social media to quickly communicate major city administration information to citizens, conduct administration based on communication and empathy, and further strengthen field-oriented city administration where we listen to citizens' inconveniences in the field and jointly seek solutions.
Second, I will build a people-centered urban ecosystem with well-developed infrastructure.
I will expand the Bara Mountain Natural Recreation Forest and develop the Baegun Lake Park by 2024 to provide expanded green healing spaces where citizens can enjoy nature and heal body and mind.
I will promote the expansion of parking facilities to alleviate parking shortages, including the creation of public parking lots at Galmi Children's Park and Sunbit Neighborhood Park.
At Ohjeon Station on the Indong Line, I will develop a traffic culture complex consisting of a public parking lot and cultural park by 2024.
To ensure smooth traffic flow, I will complete the expansion projects on Gosan Road and the Railroad Museum Road, and continue to promote six other projects including road development in the Wonter Village.
I will commence the Anyang Stream maintenance project in February, and complete the Saeudae Stream and Geumcheon Stream small stream maintenance projects by the end of this year to create a safe and pleasant water-friendly space.
I will promote the expansion project of the Wangsong Sewage Treatment Plant and implement separated sewage pipe projects in Samdong and Naesone-dong areas to prevent odors and create a sanitary living environment.
Third, I will create opportunities and secure urban growth momentum through economic policies suited to regional conditions.
We will issue local currency Uiwang Love Gift Certificates at a scale of 44 billion won and continue to provide purchase discount support throughout the year.
For small business owners, I will provide one-on-one customized consulting and management environment improvement support, and operate a Leaders Academy to strengthen competitiveness of small businesses.
At the Poil Harmony Center, I will operate a startup support center, a startup incubation center, and a maker space to cultivate excellent startups and create a city favorable for entrepreneurship.
To support youth activities, I will operate Youth Power Stations and support credit recovery for young people struggling with student loan repayment, actively supporting youth independence and growth.
I will remodel the Workers' Welfare Hall as a rest and culture space for workers and open it, and operate a labor counseling office to work toward enhancing workers' rights.
The Senior Club, a dedicated organization for senior employment, will be completed in February to ensure smooth implementation of senior job projects and provide enhanced senior welfare services.
Fourth, I will create a customized welfare city where all citizens are happy.
The Arumchae Annex equipped with a bathhouse will be completed in June, and the Senior Welfare Center will provide experience opportunities with smart devices so seniors can enjoy hobbies and leisure activities.
Professional managers linked to senior employment will visit senior community centers to provide exercise instruction and smart device education, expanding leisure support for healthy and active retirement.
I will newly construct the narrow and aging Veterans Welfare Hall as the Ohjeon Community Center by June, and for the Heaven Rest Site, I will conduct basic design for increasing columbarium capacity in response to increased demand, completing it by 2025 to expand public funeral facilities.
I will promote the conversion of private childcare centers to state-run facilities, create three "Together Childcare Centers" and one "Childcare Sharing Space," and expand hourly childcare rooms to continuously expand safe care spaces.
The Jangan District Children's Community Center will be established by 2024 through preliminary design work next year, and I will do my best to improve disabled welfare facilities, including expanding the dining area of the Hope Nare Disability Welfare Center and remodeling existing facilities.
Fifth, I will create an education excellence city where anyone can develop their dreams and talents.
To allow youth to enjoy various activities, I will build a Youth Culture Hall with four stories above ground in the Naeson-ra area by December as a public contribution from redevelopment projects.
I will support information technology equipment for online class operations at elementary, middle, and high schools, and continuously support customized non-face-to-face education by operating native speaker video foreign language learning programs.
The "Together Childcare Center" for elementary students after school will operate at a total of eight locations, and I will continue to promote universal education welfare including support for athletic wear purchase for new middle and high school students and healthy and safe school meals.
To create a citizen-centered lifelong learning environment, I will establish a Lifelong Learning Center as a learning space on the second floor of the Baegun Community Center and open it in March.
I will conduct democratic citizen education to disseminate various contemporary values such as labor, human rights, environment, and equality, and operate "communication salons" that discover and nurture small-scale communities through mutual learning and experience sharing.
Sixth, I will create a cultural and sports city where citizens can enjoy quality culture and leisure.
The long-cherished aspiration of citizens for the construction of a Civic Hall passed the central investment review last year, and this year we will proceed through design contests with a goal of completion in 2024 without delay.
At Resolé Park, I will develop a complex cultural space with a community culture center and small library, and create children's experience facilities in the lower space under the Sky Rail by April.
The baseball field development project underway in Wanggok-dong will be completed in April, and I will expand sports facilities for active leisure, including the creation of a gateball court and footgolf court in Naesone-dong by August.
I will operate a small library at Resolé Park specialized in climate and environment themes, and create a library and smart library at Baegun Community Center to foster an everyday living environment where citizens can easily access books.
I will establish an English e-library service to meet the demand for English reading and continue to operate a neighborhood bookstore library where people can borrow and return books at local bookstores next year.
Finally, I will prepare a foundation for Uiwang to make a higher level leap as a mid-sized self-sufficient city representing the southwestern Seoul metropolitan area.
Following the government's additional Third New City Plan, development of the Uiwang-Gunpo-Ansan district, along with five ongoing urban development projects, eleven redevelopment and reconstruction projects, the creation of the Uiwang Cheonggye Techno Park, the opening of two double-track railways, the GTX-C line, and the installation of complex transit facilities at Uiwang Station will bring revolutionary changes to our city's spatial structure.
Taking advantage of these new growth conditions, I plan to actively create the city's future vision suited to a mid-sized self-sufficient city representing the southwestern Seoul metropolitan area with a population of approximately 300,000, and I will promote projects such as the "2040 Uiwang Comprehensive Long-Term Development Plan Establishment Project" and "Large-Scale Residential Land Development Business Strategy Establishment Project."
For Uiwang's higher-level leap, I will set new development directions and strategies from a long-term perspective and respond proactively to secure the necessary urban infrastructure as the government proceeds with development projects.
Respected Citizens! And Public Officials!
This year marks the end of the seventh civilian administration and the beginning of a new eighth civilian administration in the second half of the year.
Just as we have done our best over the past three and a half years, we will repay your trust this year with even more humility and trustworthy administration, thinking of this not as an end but as a beginning.
In particular, I will not stop the journey toward a "new Uiwang where citizens are happy" by devoting all our efforts to ensure that the lives of all citizens are abundant and happy.
Additionally, I will maintain a thorough quarantine system and implement all planned pending projects so that Uiwang City will lead the way in preparing for the new world that began with COVID-19.
Welcoming the Year of the Tiger, a symbol of passion and perseverance with outstanding wisdom and leadership, I hope that joy and laughter fill every household of our citizens and that all their wishes come true.
I wish you a happy and prosperous new year! Thank you.
Morning of the New Year 2022
Uiwang Mayor Kim Sang-don