Suwon Citizens' Wish: 'Kind Civil Servants and Proactive Administration'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jeong Jun-sung] Suwon city's proactive administration is raising citizens' perceived satisfaction. The city has been breaking existing practices and seeking new ways to increase citizen satisfaction, working to spread a Suwon-style proactive administration culture. This has soon produced results. Over 2 years and 4 months, the city has received 9 institutional commendations and 234 million won in rewards, and has consistently appeared on the winning list of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's proactive administration excellence competition held twice annually, in spring and fall, four consecutive times. This is a testament to Suwon city's efforts. We review Suwon city's efforts established through implementation plans and pursued for proactive administration. (Editor's note)

■ Suwon City's Proactive Administration Satisfaction 'Thumbs Up'

The city conducted a '2022 Proactive Administration Citizen Satisfaction Survey' for 83 days from March 30 to June 20. The survey was aimed at confirming citizens' satisfaction with proactive administration and setting future promotional directions including improvement measures. A total of 853 citizens participated both online and offline.

According to the survey results, when asked whether Suwon city is practicing leading proactive administration, 23% of respondents answered 'very much so,' 44% answered 'somewhat so,' and 23% answered 'average.' This means 90% of citizens think Suwon's leading proactive administration is average or higher.

Overall satisfaction with proactive administration also recorded a high level of 90% with 'very satisfied' at 16%, 'satisfied' at 46%, and 'average' at 28%. Additionally, regarding efforts to activate proactive administration, 22% answered 'very much so,' 49% answered 'somewhat so,' and 19% answered 'average,' with 90% evaluating it as average or higher. Moreover, most questions related to proactive administration, such as 'whether work is being processed in a more proactive direction' and 'whether reasonable alternatives are being sought rather than adhering to conventions,' received positive responses.

Suwon citizens who responded to the survey also offered advice on the direction of proactive administration. They ranked the necessary areas for proactive administration as improvement in work methods (16%), improvement of unreasonable practices (16%), and support for stabilizing national living (14%), in that order. They also suggested the need for ways to resolve corporate regulatory difficulties and enhance citizen convenience, flexible task processing suited to field conditions, and establishing user-friendly systems from a citizen's perspective.

■ 9 Institutional Commendations in 2 Years, 234 Million Won in Special Treasury Disbursements and Awards

The high level of citizen perception and satisfaction with proactive administration revealed in the survey is due to Suwon city's visible achievements in proactive administration efforts thus far.

Suwon city ranked first in the basic local government category in the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's comprehensive proactive administration evaluation for 2020 and 2021 consecutively. The city has not missed out on awards in the proactive administration excellence competition held twice a year. Over 2 years and 4 months, it has recorded 1 Presidential Award, 1 Prime Minister's Award, and a total of 9 institutional commendations related to proactive administration. When combined, special treasury disbursements and award prizes for excellent proactive administration amount to 234 million won. Particularly in the first quarter of this year, the city listed one excellent case and one new case each in the proactive administration regulatory difficulty alleviation evaluation, raising expectations for the year-end results.

Suwon city has continuously operated the Proactive Administration Committee and proactive administration mindset innovation training, while independently selecting excellent proactive administration cases and selecting outstanding civil servants to concentrate efforts on spreading a proactive administration culture. The city has also led the way in support and protection of civil servants engaging in proactive administration by operating the 'Proactive Administration Pre-consulting System' and 'Proactive Administration Exemption System.'

Particularly this year, the city has established the '2022 Proactive Administration Implementation Plan' and is promoting 30 projects in 5 fields and 11 key projects. While strengthening the capacity of the Proactive Administration Committee, the city is also conducting proactive administration training, commitment pledges, and 'visiting proactive administration consulting.' Additionally, the city operates a special inspection team to eliminate passive administration, adding efforts to eradicate passive administration practices.

■ Citizen-Centered Proactive Administration Enhanced Safety and Convenience

The excellent proactive administration cases created by the city through various policies and projects were a process to enhance citizen safety and convenience.

First, in the first half of 2020, when infectious diseases threatened citizen safety, the city lit the fuse for citizen-centered proactive administration. Suwon city's continuous advocacy and recommendations that relevant legislation should be amended to allow basic local governments to hire epidemiological investigators following the 2015 MERS outbreak led to the amendment of the 'Infectious Disease Prevention Act' in March. Additionally, the city preemptively blocked the spread of regional infection from asymptomatic overseas entrants by providing reassurance call vans so international arrivals would not use public transportation, and offering temporary living facilities or reassurance accommodations for families to use until test results were available. Suwon city's exemplary COVID-19 response system construction achieved an excellence award at the first half of 2020 proactive administration excellence competition.

The full-scale achievement of Suwon city's proactive administration in 2020 gained momentum with the 'Construction of an Emergency Vehicle Priority Signal System.'

The emergency vehicle priority signal system enables the fastest hospital arrival for emergency patients by having the Suwon City Safety Integrated Center track the location of ambulances via GPS during transport to the hospital and provide a green signal at the intersection where the emergency vehicle passes. For every 1 km of travel, the average travel time is reduced from 3 minutes 20 seconds to 1 minute 27 seconds, enabling arrival at regional advanced hospitals within 10 minutes.

After introduction by the Suwon City Safety Integrated Center in March 2020, it was selected as the most excellent proactive administration in Suwon city's self-evaluation in the first half of that year, was selected to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's 'proactive administration hot spot,' and received national attention with subsequent benchmarking by other local governments. In particular, it became the top contributor to proactive administration by winning the Presidential Award at the '2020 Proactive Administration Excellence Competition,' where local governments across the nation presented their proactive administration cases in a public voting format.

Last year as well, Suwon city continued to win at the Ministry's competition, solidifying its status as a leading local government in proactive administration.

In the first half of 2021, when the spread of non-face-to-face culture led to an increase in delivery packaging materials and environmental issues emerged, Suwon city received the Prime Minister's Award for a multi-use transport packaging material project. The 'Multi-use Transport Packaging Material Pilot Project for Reducing Packaging Waste,' which Suwon city started first among all local governments in Korea in March 2021, is a method of shipping packages using reusable packaging materials through collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and distribution companies. When residents in the pilot project area order products from online malls, deliveries are made using multi-use packaging materials, which are then recovered at distribution centers, significantly reducing the use of paper and styrofoam boxes.

Suwon city's proactive administration culture spread to collaborative organizations, with Suwon Urban Development Corporation continuing the winning streak in the latter half of last year. Suwon Urban Development Corporation, which introduced eco-friendly condolence flowers, received the Personnel Innovation Director Award at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's second half 2021 proactive administration excellence competition. The initiative was evaluated for pioneering funeral culture by introducing eco-friendly condolence flower objects that can reduce the large amount of waste generated from traditional three-tier floral wreaths. In particular, the organization operated guidance periods and strengthened communication through discussions with related industries, and alleviated burdens by purchasing flower stands and providing free rental services, enabling related industries to adapt to the changes. This became a precedent implemented first in the capital region.

Additionally, △improved convenience in reporting urban bus complaints via QR code for rapid handling of traffic complaints △established an intelligent queuing system at the passport service center to improve waiting services △minimized omissions through visiting services for vulnerable groups having difficulty applying for disaster basic income to resolve welfare blind spots △increased citizen convenience through street light-type electric vehicle rapid charging facilities that can be installed even on narrow sites have been externally recognized as excellent proactive administration cases.

A city official stated, "We will make every effort to create a proactive administration civil service culture that citizens can clearly feel by actively supporting swift and bold decision-making by civil servants and responding promptly to rapidly changing administrative environments."