Suwon Receives Grand Prize in 2025 Korea Local Revitalization Awards for 'Win-Win Cooperation' Category

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Suwon Special City received the grand prize in the 'Win-Win Cooperation' category at the '2025 Korea Local Revitalization Awards' held at the Press Club of the Korea Press Center on the 24th.

The 'Korea Local Revitalization Awards,' jointly hosted by the National Assembly's Committee on Administration and Safety and News1, are presented to innovative local governments and companies that have contributed to preventing regional depopulation and responding to population cliffs and have demonstrated results.

The city received high recognition for its cooperation case with Bonghwa County in North Gyeongsang Province, which has the second-highest population decline rate in the nation. Beginning with initial exchanges in 2015, the city has maintained mutual visits and representative festival exchanges across 12 occasions.

After signing a sister city agreement in June last year, the city has engaged in various exchange activities including △Saebit Suwon Workshop (civil servant workshop initiatives) △operation of a Suwon civil servant resort facility in Bonghwa County △operating sales booths for Bonghwa specialty products during Suwon events. In April of this year, the city participated in the 'Special City-Depopulation Region Win-Win Cooperation Agreement' to establish a joint response foundation.

In particular, the 'Cheongnyangsan Suwon Camping Site,' which is set to open this year, exemplifies a win-win development model combining Bonghwa County's natural resources with Suwon's social resources.

The city will upgrade Bonghwa County's existing camping facility and operate it free of charge for ten years while promoting stay-type regional tourism. The plan aims to meet Suwon residents' camping and cultural tourism needs while increasing Bonghwa County's residential population to address regional depopulation.

Second Deputy Mayor Hyun Geun-taek said, "Regional population decline is not an issue of a single locality but a critical national matter directly linked to national survival," and added, "We will continue our efforts so that the win-win cooperation cases between Suwon and Bonghwa County, including the Cheongnyangsan Suwon Camping Site, can become an exemplary case for national balanced development and a standard model for inter-regional cooperation."