Mayor Jung Ha-young pledged to make Gimpo a ‘warm and kind-hearted’ city

Gimpo City plans to open the Aegibong Peace Ecological Park in 2021 and actively utilize it as an educational center for security and peace, and as a space where visitors can look at North Korea and paint the future of the unified Korean Peninsula.

In an interview with The Korea Post, Gimpo City Mayor Jung Ha-young said, “Although there are ups and downs in inter-Korean relations at the moment, I don't think there are many places where we can play a better role than Gimpo when the era of peace comes."

Referring to the project to remove barbed-wire fences at the mouth of the Han River and to designate a special economic zone for peace, Mayor Jung said, "We will push to extend Seoul Subway Line 5 and Incheon Subway Line 2 and attract GTX-D lines to prepare for the region's continued growth conditions."

Jung also stressed that peace tourism will be responsible for Gimpo's 100-year-finance, noting that Gimpo has a huge competitive edge historically and geopolitically over other cities.

The following is a major excerpt from The Korea Post’s interview with Gimpo Mayor Jung Ha-young.

Question: Would you introduce urban environment and competitiveness of Gimpo City?

Answer: The development pace of Gimpo is fast enough to rank among the highest in the metropolitan area.
There is a reason why the value of Gimpo City, which had been somewhat undervalued, is soaring due to the development of Gimpo Han River New Town, the opening of urban railroads, and the establishment of various infrastructure.

Gimpo is located in Gyeonggi-do, but it is directly adjacent to Seoul and Incheon. It is a key area in the three metropolitan areas.

In addition, it is the center of the land, sea and air transportation network, including the West Sea, Han River, Han River Estuary, Gyeongin Ara Waterway, Gimpo International Airport, Incheon International Airport, Seoul Metropolitan Area 1 Circulation Expressway, and Incheon Gimpo Expressway.

Following the opening of the Gimpo Gold Line of the Urban Railway, the transportation network will continue to improve, including Seoul Subway Line 5 (Gimpo Han River Line), Incheon Subway Line 2, and the so-called GTX-D promotion of the western metropolitan express railway.

Reflecting this situation, the population of Gimpo City has been on a steep rise since it surpassed 200,000 for the first time in 2003, with 310,000 in 2013, 420,000 in 2018 and 430,000 in 2019.

In September, population growth topped the list of 226 basic local governments in the country for a month.

In the future, Gimpo's value is expected to continue to expand due to the extension of subways in Seoul and Incheon, the attraction of university hospital, and the development of Poongmu station district and Cinepolis.

Gimpo City will respond quickly and actively to the administrative needs of citizens in each administrative field, including economy, education, culture, and environment, in line with such urban growth.

Q: Would you comment on Gimpo City’s innovation tasks and job creation plans?

A: The city of Gimpo aims to create more than 21,000 jobs this year, with its vision of 'double citizen happiness and good jobs in Gimpo.'

Despite the impact of COVID-19, 85 percent of the 2020 target, or 18,900 direct and indirect jobs, were offered at the end of the third quarter.
If we include this year's new hope job project to overcome COVID-19, we expect this year's goal to be achieved without difficulty.

However, the COVID-19 situation is expected to continue into the next year. Accordingly, it is urgent to find attractive private-sector jobs and create conditions for them to continue.

Gimpo City is a youth city rich in young human resources. It is an important time for us to tide over the crisis of COVID-19 and make Gimpo a smart city. We will create jobs by fostering talents and supporting management innovation in preparation for the acceleration of the non-face-to-face and digital economy.

We will create a workplace where work-life balance is guaranteed by supporting social insurance premiums for small businesses, operating labor safety guards at industrial sites, supporting remote work for small and medium-sized enterprises, improving transportation benefits in the industrial complex, and making restful weekends.

Gimpo City is a youth city rich in young human resources. As it is an important time for us to turn over the crisis of Corona 19 into a smart Gimpo, we will create jobs by fostering talent and supporting management innovation in preparation for the acceleration of the non-face-to-face and digital economy.

We will create a workplace where work-life balance is guaranteed by supporting social insurance premiums for small businesses, operating labor safety guards at industrial sites, supporting remote work for small and medium-sized enterprises, improving transportation benefits in the industrial complex, and making restful weekends.

In addition, we will strengthen the competitiveness of the labor market by establishing employment and start-up ecosystem platforms, seeking technology innovation of small business owners through public delivery apps and smart shopping support, fostering five major industries, attracting bio-health industries, and certifying young businesses.

The existing job training and job support projects for each class will also be internalized online and offline to foster talented people suitable for social structure changes and lay the foundation for the non-face-to-face recruitment culture.

In the future, we will continue to work with local employment governance, such as job-related agencies, to create a "young city, smart Gimpo" by focusing on finding local jobs linked to government policies or balanced New Deal projects so that talented people can be employed in our region.

Q: Do you have any idea on the conception of Gimpo City?

A: Last September, the Gyeonggi Environmental Energy Agency was established by integrating six environmental agencies in Gyeonggi Province.

According to the results of the Gyeonggi Environmental Energy Agency Establishment Feasibility Study Service, its effect on the local economy over the next five years will total about 376.8 billion won ($333 million).

The production inducement effect is 209.3 billion won, the value-added inducement effect is 167.5 billion won, and the employment inducement effect is 2,545 people.

In the beginning of next year, it will be in charge of discovering new renewable energy and creating new energy industries in Gyeonggi-do, developing technologies for environmental industries, supporting companies, establishing policies for living environment safety, educating residents, and forming a governance network for training professionals.

Gimpo City is actively working with the agency to seek ways to improve the ecological environment in the province and to play a leading role in providing a foundation for the spread of renewable energy by utilizing Gimpo's corporate assets.

In addition to research on 'fine dust reduction' which is a national issue, we will promote meaningful environmental projects such as environmental education for residents using the Han River estuary in Gimpo, a natural resource, and systematic development and conservation of natural resources in the Han River estuary.

In addition, we will speed up the pace of the new and renewable energy projects in connection with the Gyeonggi Province, Gimpo City and Seoul Metropolitan Landfill Management Corporation by establishing a South-North joint environmental policy on the ecosystem of the border area, reducing environmental pollution in industrial complexes through analysis of environmental pollution data at small businesses in the jurisdiction.

Q: Would you explain Gimpo City’s plan to attract investment and tourists and future directions for revitalizing the local economy?

A: Gimpo City established an investment attraction team in September 2019 to systematically and actively promote the attraction of institutions and companies.

In April 2020, we also formed the Gimpo City Investment Policy Advisory Group to discover new future growth engines and promote investment attraction.

In addition to administrative-oriented investment attraction activities and the know-how and expertise of the investment policy advisory group composed of private experts, we are making utmost efforts to attract leading companies and institutions, including companies related to the fourth industrial revolution.

Gimpo City has various tourist resources scattered by region. It is time to compile tourism resources in various places, including peace contents in the northern part of the country, ecological resources in the estuary of the Han River, and marine leisure resources in the West Sea and Ara Marina.

Gimpo City is promoting 'Gimpo Tourist Business Comprehensive Plan Establishment Consulting Service' to develop tourism resource belts for these resources.

Once Gimpo's tourism strategic project plan is established through systematic and comprehensive analysis, we will devise a linked project and draw up a business direction based on it.
We continue to discover distinctive tourist contents and tourist killing points that can strategically respond to the rapidly changing tourism environment so that more tourists can experience, heal and generate tourism consumption.

At the same time, we are pushing for various measures to revitalize the local economy. In the short term, we will push for the recovery of small business owners who have been hit by the COVID-19 damage and the restoration of the local businesses.

In the long term, we will strive to enhance regional competitiveness by supporting the establishment of non-face-to-face infrastructure and strengthening the capabilities of small business owners.

We plan to pay consolation money to solve the management difficulties of shops, restaurants and business outlets where COVID-19 confirmed patients visited.

Also, we have a project for small business owners who are the main players of the alley economy, and supports small business owners who are having a hard time by helping them receive the 'New Hope Fund' from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

In order to protect the local economy from falling, the discount rate of Gimpo Pay has been expanded to 10% since January, and it has been extended to December to increase sales of small business owners and increase consumption in the region.

We are also propelling the project to improve the landscape of the alley shopping district and revitalize traditional markets and alleys.

In the long run, we will prepare for the new era by introducing public delivery apps and the 4th industrial response system.