Says Mayor Lee Jae-yeong of Jeungpyeong-gun

''Jeungpyeong-gun will create a stay-type smart rural tourism facility in conjunction with the Lake Park Renaissance,'' said Mayor Lee Jae-yeong of Jeungpyeong-gun.

In an exclusive interview with The Korea Post media, publisher of 3 Enaglish and 2 Korean-lanugage news publications sicne 1985, Mayor Lee said, ''With this project, we received the Excellence Award at the 2022 City/County Specialized Project Contest organized by Chungcheongbuk-do and secured a project cost of 4 billion won in special adjustment grants.''

Mayor Lee continued to say, ''On top of that, we plan to spend a total of 7.5 billion won, adding 3.5 billion won in county budget, to create experience (education) and stay-type tourism facilities using smart agriculture on about 41,250㎡ of Noam-ri, Doan-myeon by 2024.»

Mayor Lee Jae-yeong of Jeungpyeong-gun.
Mayor Lee Jae-yeong of Jeungpyeong-gun.

The followings are excerpts from an interview with Mayor Lee Jae-yeong of Jeungpyeong-gun.

Question: How did you spend your time after taking office as mayor?

Answer: It has been a hectic time since taking office in July. The experience of serving as the deputy mayor helped me understand the overall county administration, but I was busy handling pending issues and redesigning the county administration framework, such as pledges, organization, and budgets.

We visited village senior citizens' centers, social organizations, and institutions to listen to residents' opinions on the county administration and come up with a plan to implement the pledge project.

We have also made an innovative reorganization plan to support the new county administration and submitted it to the county council.

We urgently responded to disasters such as the spread of the bird flu virus and the nearby Goesan earthquake, and successfully held the Ginseng Valley Festival and the Field Song Festival.

We are also making all-out efforts to secure budgets for pending projects by visiting central ministries, Chungcheongbuk-do, and congressmen every day.

In addition, in order to make a new leap forward in Jeungpyeong, we are quickly moving to expand transportation networks such as railways to explain the legitimacy and attract high-tech companies such as semiconductors and secondary batteries.

Q: The county announced a plan to implement the pledge project. Could you briefly introduce it?

A: Last month, Jeungpyeong-gun invited more than 60 people, including local residents, social organizations, and entrepreneurs, to finalize and announce the action plan for the 6th civil election pledge project.

During the election process, each of the promises the mayor made with the county residents and the policies while traveling through the site were included in the pledge.

It was a meaningful time to collect various opinions, from policy advisory groups, outside experts in each field, and pledge implementation evaluation teams, and to finalize and announce 60 pledge projects in seven areas through in-depth discussions with the business department.

The 6th popular election projects in Jeungpyeong-gun will cost a total of 1.3 trillion won, including state, provincial, county, and private capital, based on the county-centered administration.

Major projects include caring and alleviating inconvenience in life, fostering new industrial ecosystems and regional strategic industries,

establishing the identity of Jeungpyeong and promoting cultural tourism,

support for agricultural distribution and balanced development between villages, revitalization of sports for all and sports theme parks, youth support policies and cooperation projects with military units, expansion of transportation networks to establish future infrastructure, etc.

In order to realize happiness care, a care TF team is already formed and care institutions are expanded and operated around small libraries.

It was well received by residents by operating a communication empathy happiness evaluation band and a comprehensive administrative observation system to resolve inconveniences in life.

Through the implementation of the pledge project, we will lay a new foundation for the next 100 years of Jeungpyeong, communicate with the county residents, and show them the blueprint for the new future Jeungpyeong during the four years of the 6th popular election.

In recognition of these efforts, we won the best prize in the field of election pledges for local elections organized by the Korea Manifesto Practice Headquarters in August.

Q: According to recent media reports, Jeungpyeong-gun has begun creating tourism facilities using smart agriculture. Please tell us your specific plans.

A: Jeungpyeong-gun will create a stay-type smart rural tourism facility in conjunction with the Lake Park Renaissance.

The plan is to create smart agricultural test beds, experience farms, hydroponic cultivation and experience facilities of ginseng, and to set up farmers' local markets and local food & ginseng (L&G) cafeterias to sell agricultural products and processed foods produced there to attract tourists through the 30-ri Jeungsugangsan Lake Renaissance Project.

The 30-ri Jeungsugangsan Lake Park Renaissance project will be carried out to build a tourism belt that links local resources such as lakes, rivers, mountains, and people in Jeungpyeong.

The project, which was conceived in Samcheon-ri Geumsugangsan (Land of natural beauty stretching for the whole land of Korea), plans to belt 30 ri of tourism resources from Wonnam Reservoir, which is located in the Edu Farm Special Zone in Doan-myeon, to Yuli Samgi Reservoir and Jwagusan Mountain, and push ahead with nine tasks such as tourism, ecology, agriculture, rural areas, cultural, sports, safety, and deregulation.

In addition, we are actively considering the development of a large-scale rural tourism and recreation complex in Noam-ri, Doan-myeon.

With the idea of investing 30 billion won in a private development method by 2026 in 140,000㎡ of Noam-ri, major facilities are focused on accommodation facilities, restaurants, ecological experience centers, and specialty stores, focusing on smart farms.

It is expected that the Edu Farm Special Zone, the only special tourist zone in Chungcheongbuk-do, where 1.25 million cumulative tourists visited nearby, will be located to create synergy.

Mokumoku Farm in Iga, Mie Prefecture, Japan, which is prefecture as a model of this project, attracts more than 500,000 tourists a year, leads the local economy, with annual sales of 5 billion yen (about 60 billion won) and employment of 1,000 nearby residents.

In January next year, we will start basic plans and feasibility studies for the development of rural tourism and recreation complexes.

Q: What area do you want to grow Jeungpyeong into during your tenure?

A: Although the Jeungpyeong is small, it is 81.8㎢ in area, the 156th out of 226 municipalities, counties, and districts nationwide.

Before the opening of Jeungpyeong-gun in 2003, it has long served as the center of living areas such as Bugi, Cheongan, Sari, Chopyeong, etc., and is geographically the center of Chungcheongbuk-do.

It is located in the center of Korea and has infinite potential for development.

In order for Jeungpyeong-gun to develop in the future, I think it is necessary to build a foundation project that looks back on its history and looks forward to the next 100 years.

To this end, through active cooperation with the central government, provincial governments, and other local governments, various infrastructures should be established to expand the scope of Jeungpyeong and lead the leap forward.

First, we will cooperate organically with the regions so that the Central East-West Railway Project can be reflected in the 5th National Railway Network construction plan and selected as a preliminary feasibility study exemption project.

In addition, we will create a foundation for transportation and logistics through the promotion of stop at Jeungpyeong and aging station improvement projects in connection with the Chungbuk Line railroad speed project, and the six-axis south-north and five-axis east-west highway projects.

It will also create a new economic ecosystem. We plan to foster strategic industries such as functional bio, semiconductor, and secondary batteries and attract related companies.

We will build related infrastructure through the creation of industrial complexes and the construction of knowledge industry centers.

In order to improve the settlement conditions in the region and compensate for the insufficient infrastructure, the construction of a complex culture and arts center, the creation of a sports theme park, and urban regeneration projects in the original city center will be promoted.

We will expand various cultural and artistic programs that the people of Jeungpyeong-gun can enjoy to make it a good place to live and Jeungpyeong where people gather.

Profile of Mayor Lee Jae-yeong of Jeungpyeong-gun

Graduated from Mokdo High School

Graduated from Cheongju University (Department of Public Administration)

Graduated from Sejong Institute of National Policy at Chungbuk National University (Master of Policy Studies)

New appointment at Goesan-gun

Working at Jeungpyeong-eup Office in Goesan-gun

Transferred to Chungcheongbuk-do (Social Studies Department of the Health and Social Affairs Bureau)

Chungcheongbuk-do Tax settlement division / Officer

Dispatched to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs

Chungcheongbuk-do Transportation and Logistics Division / Secretary

Chief of Staff of North Chungcheong Province

Deputy Governor of Jeungpyeong-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do (2017-2018)

Chungcheongbuk-do Policy Planning Officer/Assistant Director

Secretary-General of the 2019 Chungju World Martial Arts Mastership Organizing Committee

Director of Bio-Industry, North Chungcheong Province

Director of Disaster and Safety Office, Chungcheongbuk-do

Details of awards

2002 Bio Expo Distinguished Service (Credited by the Prime Minister)

Outstanding Government Official (Presidential Citation)

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