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| Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon being sworn in during his online mayoral inauguration at the city's government office on Friday. The inauguration of the city's 39th mayor was also streamed live via YouTube. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government |
Mayors, governors nationwide start new terms on Friday
By Ko Dong-hwan
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon rolled out his agenda for the capital city for the next four years under his leadership as he started his fourth term on Friday. His inauguration speech was filled with pledges to support the city's vulnerable groups with welfare policies and to also stabilize the city's real estate market among other bold plans.
His inauguration ceremony was held online to give him more time to check local areas that had been hit by heavy monsoon rains. Oh said embracing vulnerable groups is essential for resolving the city's polarized communities and raising the city's competitiveness against other local governments in the country. The city's policies will put urgent emphasis on serving and benefiting the disadvantaged groups, the mayor said.
"Accompanying with the vulnerable group isn't just my political slogan," Oh, of the ruling conservative People Power Party (PPP), said as he embarked on the city's 39th mayoral office. "It is the very reason I exist as the Seoul mayor and what I will devote the rest of my life to. I assure you I will get it done in the next four years."
The city government's welfare policies will spend money on low-income earners and enforce a stricter screening process on high-income groups, he said. The city will bring down social barriers so as to create an equal educational environment for all with the new Seoul Learn campaign, enhancing public housing for low-income groups and providing more substantial medical services to vulnerable groups.
The city will calculate and release an official index on how well the city's policies will have helped vulnerable groups. The index will reflect and help shape the city's policies and the planning of its budgets, he said. The city's residents with children will be happy under his new childcare policies that will take the burden off childrearing parents, while more rigorous land re-development businesses will replace old apartment buildings with new ones, which will stabilize the city's real estate market, he promised.
"I will make a new ladder for those who bought their first houses in public housing units to more easily move to a newly-built apartment unit sold in lots," said Oh, after visiting Seoul National Cemetery to pay his respects to the country's fallen patriots earlier in the day. "Those who couldn't get their new apartment unit in lots will also be covered by the city's other options so that they can live in their new homes while being able to keep saving their money."
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| Kim Dong-yeon, governor or Gyeonggi Province, left, checks a screen showing a local area flooded by a recent heavy downpour at the provincial government's headquarters in Suwon, Friday. Joint Press Corps. |
Oh also unveiled his idea to make Seoul one of the world's top 5 cities alongside New York and London by turning the city's cluster of old Euljiro, Toegyero and Jongno areas into a sleek business zone. He will also connect Yongsan District and Yeouido functionally to make the areas a "global innovation core." Dongdaemun will have a makeover focused on the beauty business, and Hongneung and Yangjae areas will see more bio and AI-centered businesses. Design Seoul 2.0 is the mayor's other plan to make the city landscape explode with creative designs.
"The city council, for the past one year, has been dominated by lawmakers of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (outnumbering those of the PPP) who kept tripping on me. I could only execute less than a quarter of the city agenda that I had planned," said Oh. "I will revive fairness and efficiency in the city administration by not wasting a penny of our taxpayers' money."
Gyeonggi Provincial Governor Kim Dong-yeon, the former finance minister and presidential candidate in the March election who started his first term as the provincial chief on Friday, canceled his scheduled inauguration ceremony on Friday to devote more time to overseeing regions affected by the recent monsoon.
His first appointment as the governor was to visit the disaster safety monitoring center inside the provincial government headquarters in Suwon. He postponed a town hall meeting and other friendly meetings with provincial residents scheduled in the first days of his government so as to concentrate more on overseeing the aftermath of the heavy downpour that hit the country nationwide for days.
Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok, who began his second mayoral term in the city on Friday, joined an outdoor evening concert event at Incheon Harbor. Rather than the city hall, he selected the western coastal harbor for the event because of his bandwagon pledge that he will make the harbor the city's new center of economic development.
He said he will get back the ownership of a 1.82 million square meter-large zone inside the harbor from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and turn it into a free economic zone breathing more life into the city's culture, leisure, maritime tourism and history businesses. He had called it the Jemulpo Renaissance while campaigning to be mayor.
"I will make Incheon a global top-class [city]," said Yoo, who restarted his position as mayor four years after his first term. "Balance, creativity and communication will be the core philosophies of my office."
Seventeen heads of the country's metropolitan governments and provincial governments as well as those leading administrative offices of local districts and counties started their new terms on Friday following their victories in the June 1 local elections.
