Gwangju City News

From the Gwangju Metropolitan City Press Release (http://gwangju.go.kr)

Gwangju City won the grand prize for creating senior jobs in the Evaluation of Elderly Jobs and Social Activity Support Business put on by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Gwangju City had discovered eco-friendly jobs for the elderly that can be a response to the climate crisis even during this difficult time of promoting seniorcitizen job projects in the era of Covid-19. This includes neighborhood resource manager projects, park environment maintenance projects, and Pungyeong River crime-prevention team projects.

Also, Gwangju City has focused on creating happy jobs for the elderly that are involved with the community by discovering specialized regional social projects using funds from public institutions such as the Korea Gas Safety Corporation and the Korea Petroleum Quality and Distribution Authority.

In particular, the city received favorable reviews for signing agreements with organizations such as the Korea Environment Corporation, the Agency for Traditional Market Administration, and Lotte GRS, and for creating 110 more job opportunities for the elderly with these organizations through promoting the Recycling Used Coffee Grounds Project. This year, Gwangju City is providing around 28,350 job opportunities with a budget of 99.9 billion won, and high-quality, customized jobs are being created to reflect the characteristics of the aging baby boomer population.

The Gwangju Metropolitan City Waterworks Headquarters launched a campaign to inform residents of the severity of the drought and appeal for water conservation by 20 percent per resident.

The campaign seeks to inform residents that the Dongbok Dam, the water source for Gwangju, will be exhausted by the end of March next year due to the severe water shortage. The campaign also suggests certain water conservation practices such as adjusting the water pressure of water meters, using gargling cups, reducing shower time, and putting plastic bottles in toilet tanks.

Deputy Mayor Moon Young-hoon said, “If water consumption does not decrease from where it is now, the city could have a water shortage situation with limited water supply in the spring of next year.” Meanwhile, the Waterworks Headquarters has been conducting a weekly water conservation campaign for residents since November 1 and, on the 16th, conducted a street campaign in which all city officials participated.

▲ Gwangju City Hall officials, including Gwangju Mayor Kang Gi-Jung on a street campaign.

Gwangju City ranked first among metropolitan cities in the 2021 Regional Traffic Safety Implementation Plan Evaluation organized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport (MOLIT).

The Traffic Safety Implementation Plan Evaluation is a nationwide evaluation done every year by MOLIT in order to improve traffic safety management. This evaluation includes an “Actual Result” part for things such as facility improvement, promotion, education, regulation, and cooperation with related organizations, as well as an “Actual Effect” part for the reduction of the traffic accident death rate or improving the traffic culture index improvement rate.

Gwangju City received high scores for improvements in traffic accident deaths, traffic safety facilities, and safety management indicators for business vehicles. In particular, the city achieved an improvement of 106 percent in terms of traffic accident deaths (with a target of 52 and a result of 49), and showed a 22.2 percent decrease in the number of deaths from the previous year (from 63 to 49), which ranked the city first, four places up from last year.

This is interpreted as being a result of Gwangju City's active efforts to reduce the number of deaths from traffic accidents, including efforts to share traffic safety policies through operating collaborative teams of officials from traffic-related organizations for the reduction of traffic accidents.

In addition, Gwangju City is promoting various practices for traffic safety, including improving traffic systems and expanding traffic safety facilities at traffic-accident hazard locations for better traffic accident prevention, maintaining old traffic facilities, promoting traffic accident prevention through media, and conducting education for accidentprone groups, such as the elderly and children.